Having beaten Wokingham & Emmbrook Ladies previously two weeks ago in the Preliminary Round of the Southern Region Women’s League Cup, the First Team of Newbury Ladies FC travelled last Sunday to face Oxford City Ladies in Round One Proper.

It was the home side, in their traditional blue and white hoops, who started strongly, opening the scoring after just ten minutes, attacking down the Newbury left and firing a powerful close range shot across the goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net for one nil. Either side of that strike however, Newbury’s keeper, Kat Brown, had pulled off two excellent saves. She then instigated a nice break-away, involving skipper, Ellie Reed, who moved the ball down field. This resulted in a flicked-on header by Amy McNab, that finally saw a shot towards the Oxford goal from Nicole Beesley. With the goalkeeper beaten, unfortunately for Newbury, the ball scrapped the outside of the far post and went behind to safety.

Newbury fell further behind in the 21st minute, when Oxford City scored a second, which put the match firmly in the home side’s control. Still Newbury refused to their let heads drop and they mounted an attack from the re-start. With McNab fouled deep in the Oxford half, Reed stepped up to take a direct free kick for Newbury from 25 yards. Her effort was somehow kept out by a combination of a one handed save from the home keeper and the cross-bar. Twice now, Newbury had come agonisingly close to scoring. But in comparison, the chances were raining down for Oxford, but their finishing was far from clinical. That was until the 27th minute, when they were able to score a third and they then claimed a fourth goal just prior to half time, to take an unassailable lead into the interval.

Newbury began the second period extremely well, when a strong run and cross by Jazz Bird, saw McNab arriving first at the near post. But somehow she could only turn her first time volley the wrong side of the upright. This was a gilt-edged chance for Newbury that sadly went begging. Psychologically, Newbury’s players found it hard to recover from that miss and within two minutes they had conceded again and then saw a sixth Oxford goal scored just four minutes later.

In the final period of the game, and with Newbury’s players tiring, Oxford City rattled in three more goals in the 71st, 73rd and 84th minutes to seal a 9-0 score-line. It had been a tough afternoon for Newbury, but they will re-group and re-assess everything, ahead of hitting the road again on 4th November when they will travel in the league to take on AFC Bournemouth.

Match report by Sue Hewett