Reading U18 v Maidenhead U18 England Hockey Cup Third Round

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Captain Lucy helped lay the foundations with a first half hat-trick as we secured our second consecutive away win in the knock-out competition.
Despite a Reading revival, which reduced our lead to one goal midway through the second half, we held our nerve and finally broke the home team’s resistance with further goals from Hannah, Lucy – again - and Izzy with a firm final shot of the game.
This knock-out victory follows hard on the heels of our emphatic 9-0 home win against Reading in the Home Counties League just before Christmas. It also means we have scored 21 goals in our last three games.
Today’s win means we will be at home in the next round of the Cup competition against either Spencer or East Grinstead, who don’t play their game until next Sunday.
There were new faces in today’s team together with a couple of old friends returning to the junior ranks to give us a strong squad with great options to rotate from the bench.
Our guests were sisters Mollie & Caitlan who provided strong support all over the pitch. Our “old girls” were Amy and Jade who play most of their hockey for the Ladies and at County level these days and who brought along with them hard-earned experience on top of their skills and grace.
With the likes of senior sixth-formers Hannah, Tara and Izzy all making telling contributions, we were too strong for a young Reading outfit who had good players but lacked confidence, especially in the first half.
We should have wrapped the game up in those opening exchanges when our high tempo pressing and driving attacks pushed the hosts back and into making mistakes under pressure.
We scored early – in the fourth minute – and it was a good move started by Amy passing to Jade whose all-important early ball to Izzy left her free to run-in on the ‘keeper and then slip the ball left for Lucy to finish comfortably.
Lucy doubled our lead 12 minutes later with a trademark reverse stick swipe after a penalty corner move broke down on the edge of the D. She completed her hat-trick shortly before half-time by winning the ball back and shooting into the right-hand corner.
In between we had lots of pressure, more short corners, and shots that went wide or were blocked, but it looked as if we were playing within ourselves and Reading survived.
Reading scored just before the break, to make it 3-1 to us, at halftime.
In the second half, Reading grew in strength and scored again after five minutes with a move which ended up with their forward rounding Varnie to further reduce the arrears.
For the next 10 minutes Reading had all the momentum, were winning tackles in midfield, anticipating our moves and intercepting our passes.
Slowly we weathered the storm - with Amber and Holly strong in defence. In midfield Tori was typically tenacious and Miranda found extra reserves to help start building up our own attacks again.
The tide was turning as Maisie had one shot saved and saw another go wide of the post. Then a goal was disallowed for supposedly hitting one of our girls in the back and Lucy slipped over under pressure in the D. It was getting better, but still nervy, especially when Varnie and Simran needed to make one crucial goal-line clearance.
Then, in the last 10 minutes we made the game safe with our vital fourth goal as Hannah pirouetted around their keeper to slot the ball home. A minute later Lucy cleanly converted one of our many penalty corners to make it five and give us breathing space.
In the final moment, Izzy got the goal her hard work deserved with another short corner strike leaving the girls to celebrate a well-earned win.
So, we are still Up for the Cup! The date for the next round will be fixed when we know our next opponents. We are also due to have a Home Counties league game v Westminster & Hampstead after half-term on Sunday 23 February at Altwood. Watch out for updates and see you at training Monday night.