Oxford City Ladies pressed from the kick off and won the game's first corner inside a minute. Newbury defended well and then broke forward through Skipper, Caroline Harkness, down the right. Her early ball into Lou Williamson carved the Oxford defence wide open, but unfortunately Williamson's first touch was too strong and the ball got away from her and was gathered gratefully by the home goalkeeper.

Williamson was again involved two minutes later when she won the ball and laid it off for Reed, who beat one player and then shaped to shoot. Her shot from distance was just too high however, but this was a promising start by Newbury. Oxford reacted well and had the ball in the back of the net following their next corner, but fortunately for Newbury the effort was ruled out for an offside.

As the first half unfolded, it was proving to be a very even and competitive encounter between two sides on the same points total before the day’s kick off. Oxford got a bit of luck heading into half time, when a cross-shot from wide right sailed over the head of the helpless goalkeeper and into the far corner of the Newbury net to give the home side a one nil lead on 34 minutes. Newbury used the last part of the first half to bring on some fresh legs in the form of substitutes Nicole Beesley, Maria Rodrigues and Megan Kirby. The score-line remained one nil at the break.

Newbury were made to pay for a very sloppy start to the second half, allowing Oxford City to extend their lead to two nil inside the first minute and giving themselves something of a mountain to climb. In very warm and sunny conditions, Newbury needed to utilise their squad to its fullest, taking advantage of the repeat substitutions rule to keep fresh legs on the pitch, particularly in midfield and defence, where players were getting through a huge workload. This led to Kirby coming on again in defence on 58 minutes to give a very creditable display in a tough contest, against good opposition.

Defender Sophie Self had to be withdrawn for a period to receive treatment off the pitch and this resulted in a major re-shuffle in defence for Newbury. Whilst they were still trying to adjust to the change in personnel, they went further behind when Oxford scored a third goal in the 64th minute. Newbury heads didn't drop out however and with Self returning to resume her leading role at the back, this steadied Newbury again and gave them a foundation to continue to try to press forward.

One glimmer of light for Newbury came ten minutes later, when a very good opening was worked by Reed and Beesley, with the latter feeding Reed through Oxford's back line for a cool, left footed finish into the bottom corner. 3-1 now the score. As the game edged to a close, it was certainly Newbury who were finishing the stronger and they came very close to scoring a second in stoppage time after Harkness won a free kick on the edge of the box and Reed stepped up to curl a very good effort just an inch over the bar.

When the full time whistle came, it was Oxford City who had done enough to collect all three points and record a 3-1 victory, leaving Newbury to instead look ahead to their next set of important forthcoming league fixtures.

Report by Sue Hewett.