| Newbury Development’s first home game looked to be tough one, it being against Taplow who were on target to win the division last season when the season was abandoned in March. Newbury had never taken a point off Taplow in previous encounters. The difficulty was further emphasised by the fact that before the game Taplow were second on goal difference to Wallingford who had beaten Newbury in their opening game of the season.
Newbury welcomed two new players Sophie Papworth and Erin Abraham who signed for Newbury last week.
Taplow kicked off but it was Newbury who had the first opportunity after just two minutes when goal keeper Kat Brown kicked a long ball to Papworth who quick lobbed pass forward to captain Rebecca Walker to attack the goal but the Taplow defender managed to deal with the promising situation. Newbury were now playing in the Taplow half and another promising move between Maria Rodrigues and Megan Kirby was well dealt with by the well organised Taplow defence.
After 10 minutes Taplow had their first opportunity with a corner that was well dealt with by Saide Gulliver. Newbury were straight back on the attack with Nicole Beesley passing the Rodrigues. Again Taplow cleared up well. Brown again sent a long ball to Papworth whose shot was wide. Papworth was continuing to be very involved with Newbury’s attacks this time from Beesley on to Walker who was marginally offside.
Taplow were now getting into the game and Brown was needed to be in commanding form. On 25 minutes the Taplow keeper was brought into action punching the ball from the top of Walker’s head. The game was even now with action at both ends. Both teams had corners but both defences were holding out well. Walker add a shot on target which unfortunately hit a defender and moments later got in a good cross which was well fielded by the keeper. The half ended with a nice move between Walker and Papworth whose shot was wide of the goal.
The second half saw Taplow on the attack. Unfortunately one of their players suffered an injury and had to be carried off the pitch. Taplow’s attacks were more frequent and required the Newbury defence to be on top form. Then came Taplow’s closest opportunity when a long high free kit deceived Brown because of the hardness of the pitch by bouncing high over her and onto the cross bar. She gratefully collected the return from the bar. Ayala Truelove was now having significant influence down the right side and a pass across the pitch saw her shoot narrowly wide close in under a lot pressure from the defence.
At this time Taplow were having more shooting opportunities but the back four and goalkeeper were doing well. Then Newbury had there best opportunity when there was chaos in the Taplow box and Shelley Forster almost managed to head the ball in only to be thwarted by the goal keeper.
The result 0-0 was probably the best result for both teams neither team would have wanted to lose this competitive and enthralling game in the dying minutes but it was probably Newbury who were the happier team at the end of the game as Taplow no longer had full points and remain second.
Match report by Jack Harkness
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