Reading Women 8-0 Fleet Town Women: Match Report

Ellie Szekeres in action as Poppy Whitburn (number three) watches on Hat-tricks from Tia Johnson and Nat Cowell helped Reading Women romp home 8-0 winners over Fleet Town at Arbour Park, Slough on Sunday. Goals from Keren Banduka and captain Mia Parker sealed another high-scoring league victory. After the shock 1-0 defeat to Sholing at the beginning of March, Reading have bounced back in some style, scoring 21 goals, with just the one conceded (in the 1-1 draw against title-chasers, and League Cup winners, AFC Portchester).

Sunday’s result was the sixth time Reading had scored more than five goals in a match, with resounding victories now recorded in just over a quarter of 25 games (in all competitions) played this season. If you lower the bar slightly to include the four 4-1 victories, that winning margin of success increases to 40% of fixtures. To put that into context, last season the Royals only scored more than three goals on one occasion, with a 6-2 victory over Badshot Lea in the penultimate match of 2024/25.

It illustrates just how far the team have progressed since Ed Jackson-Norris took charge as Reading manager in July 2025. There’s a clear upward trajectory and a chance to dream of what the future could look like with a bit more funding and support. Reading’s visitors Fleet Town arrived in Slough as the proud 2024/25 champions of Division One South last season and have had a mixed start to life in tier five of the pyramid.

Similar to Sunday’s result, the Hampshire side have struggled against the teams at the top of the table (with some other heavy defeats along the way), but have rallied round each time to bounce back, ensuring league safety with six league victories recorded – including their impressive 3-2 win over Beaconsfield Town last weekend. It was the first time the two teams had met this season, after the away fixture earlier in the season was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, during that rather soggy February period. The Fleet Town management will probably have felt they couldn’t have timed their first visit to Arbour Park worse.