Marlow attacked straight from the kick off, but the visiting defence were organised and coped well to clear their lines. An early chance then came Nicole Beesley’s way, after good work on the right flank by Amie Barnard for Newbury. Her cross flashed across the goal, with Beesley just unable to stretch enough to connect with the ball. Then after a spell of Marlow pressure, they opened the scoring on 16 minutes. Marlow won a corner, after a good initial save by the Newbury keeper. Newbury’s defence had two attempts to clear following the corner, but they could only scramble the ball as far as the ‘D’, where a waiting Marlow player was able to loft the ball back over the keeper and into the net for one nil.

Marlow extended their lead on the half hour mark, when a shot from distance crept into the bottom left corner for 2 nil. The home side were comfortable as they headed into the half time break, maintaining their two goal lead. They went further ahead on 55 minutes, with another good low finish into the corner of the net for three nil.

With a re-shuffle in personnel and also the introduction of Megan Kirby in defence for Newbury, they then began to work some better openings in attack. Particularly with the impressive Lauren Hanson moved further forward, initially onto the left of midfield and then onto the right. An Ellie Reed cross was struck first time by Lisa Elboth at the far post, but the effort sailed just wide of the upright. Newbury Captain, Caz Harkness was the next to try her luck, shooting from distance and drawing a save from the Marlow keeper. In the next phase of play, Hanson was fouled wide on the right and Reed stepped up to deliver the resultant free kick. The Marlow goalkeeper seemed to lose the flight of the ball as it headed goal-ward and she could only succeed in patting the ball into the roof of her own net, after being put under pressure by Kendall Gilmour inside the 6 yard box. It was a goal that Newbury deserved, although there was some fortune about it. There was no doubt that Reed would claim it as her sixth of the season. 3-1 now after 61 minutes and there was still plenty of time for Newbury to attempt to mount a comeback.

A huge moment in the match came soon after in the 64th minute, when Harkness threaded a through ball to Barnard, who sprung Marlow’s off side trap and found herself racing clear for a one-on-one opportunity. The Marlow goalkeeper acquitted herself superbly, making up for her previous error, as she saved brilliantly from Barnard’s strike. It was a vitally important save for Marlow, because if Newbury had converted then to pull it back to 3-2, Marlow could well have been in trouble, as the momentum was well and truly swinging Newbury’s way. Still Newbury pressed and attacked in numbers, with the lively Barnard causing all sorts of problems for the Marlow back line.

The game’s final stages were played at an extremely high tempo, with no let up from either side. There were to be no further goals however and Marlow saw the match out to take a 3-1 win and all 3 points. Newbury could only try to take the positives from how strongly they had finished the match and that they had been competitive until the end.

Match Report by Sue Hewett.