They won a free kick on 16 minutes, which was 8 yards from the by-line, just to the left of the Oxford penalty area. Last season’s top scorer, Leanne Creese, stepped up to convert direct from the kick. Although the Oxford keeper got fingertips to the ball, it snuck in under the cross bar and levelled the scores at one goal apiece.

Newbury had further goal attempts through Ellie Reed and Kela Gunnlaugsdottir, but then a mis-clearance in the Newbury defence led to Oxford City taking the lead again after 28 minutes had been played. 2-1 now the score-line. Although the visitors began to pile on the pressure as half time approached, Newbury held on, with dogged defending in this period by Sophie Self and Sam Atkins. Newbury had one further effort on goal on the stroke of half time, when Reed and Caroline Harkness combined well to feed Kendall Gilmour wide right, but she was unable to keep her shot down and it didn’t trouble the Oxford goalkeeper. So the visitors took a slender 2-1 lead at the break.

After the re-start, Newbury came out firing, with Reed heavily involved in Newbury’s best attacking play. She again linked up with Harkness to find Creese in space to the right of the Oxford defence. But just like Gilmour at the end of the first half, the shot from Creese was sadly off target. Just a few minutes later and Reed herself was played in for a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, who was extremely brave, diving at Reed’s feet just in the nick of time to save her team. Reed came off worse in the challenge and had to be temporarily withdrawn for Newbury, which was a blow.

The next goal would prove to be crucial, but as hard as they tried, Newbury were unable to find a second equaliser. Then in the 69th minute a solo move from an Oxford attacker, dragged the home defence apart and she was able to shoot from just inside the area. Her shot was well placed inside the near post and it gave Oxford City a two goal cushion at 3-1.

With 12 minutes plus added time remaining, Newbury bravely switched to a back three, with Gilmour re-introduced as an extra attacker. They were now going for broke, searching for a way back into the match in the final period. It was to be to no avail however, as the Oxford City players remained calm and composed, seeing the game out to claim all three points. The match ended with the same 3-1 score-line in favour of Oxford City as in the previous reverse fixture between the two sides earlier in the season.

One of the positives for Newbury Ladies is it had been a much closer contest than in the previous encounter and they were in the game until the end, battling hard and playing for each other.

Match report by Sue Hewett