Maidenhead United Women 1-0 Reading Women: Match Report

Ellie Szekeres in action Reading Women suffered another narrow cup defeat in their Combined Counties Cup quarter-final tie at Maidenhead United on Wednesday night, with the Magpies’ Katie Akerman scoring the only goal of the match to secure a 1-0 win at York Road. The United midfielder struck a fierce long-range effort in the 70th minute to earn the Magpies a spot in the semi-finals. It was the only difference between the two sides, with Reading having more than held their own against the higher-placed team.

This result made it the third time this season the Royals have exited a cup competition after a narrow 1-0 defeat (alongside the defeats to Ascot United in the Berks & Berks Cup and to AFC Portchester in the semi-final of the League Cup ). When you include the 2-1 loss to Brentford in the FA Cup, it’s also the third time that Reading have battled well but just come up short, ultimately being edged out by higher-placed, tier-four opposition. If feels like this Reading team are close to getting it right.

Dogged, resilient and defensively tight but, as earlier league results have also shown, it’s that quality, ruthlessness and clinical finishing in the final third which is costing them. Even after last weekend’s 7-0 win at Badshot Lea , Reading have still only scored more league goals than the bottom three sides (Sholing, Woodley United and Badshot Lea). Conversely, in defence, Reading have been stingy.

They’re the second-best in the division, having conceded just 14 goals from 14 league matches, with only league-leaders Wycombe Wanderers letting in fewer (13, but impressively from 19 games). After Ed Jackson-Norris left Maidenhead in the summer to join Reading, with a few of the players following him too – and not forgetting the cancelled pre-season friendly – it felt like this match was always destined to happen. Maidenhead play their football one level above Reading, in Division One South West.