Spurs Women let lead slide in defeat to Royals

Spurs Women’s final fixture of 2019 ended in a disappointing 3-1 defeat after Siri Worm had given us the lead with a cracking opening goal at Adams Park on Sunday.

After a moment of brilliance from Worm in the 52nd minute, Reading turned things around as Jo Potter, Remi Allen and Arnalie Eikeland bagged goals late on in the second half for the hosts.

Head Coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros made one change to the side that defeated Brighton 1-0 in our last league outing. Loanee Rachel Furness missed out due to being ineligible against her parent club and Ria Percival returned to the side in her absence.

It was a fast and ferocious start to the match with Reading carving open two clear-cut chances within the first three minutes. Fara Williams swung in a dangerous-looking corner for the hosts within 60 seconds of the start, but luckily Ashleigh Neville was there to head away a goal-bound header from Potter.

Williams was involved again shortly after when she weaved her way into the box and through a sea of bodies before Becky Spencer brilliantly denied her with an excellent double save from close range.

Shortly after, Percival flew forward down the right flank just before the 10-minute mark and dinked a teasing cross into the box that was headed downwards by Gemma Davison and blasted inches wide of the post by Kit Graham from six yards out.

After a finely-poised first half, the game exploded into life in the 52nd minute when Worm struck a beautiful, curling shot into the top corner from the edge of the box, her first competitive goal for us, after a smart short corner from Graham was played perfectly into her path.

But 25 minutes later, the hosts equalised when Potter tapped in Williams' corner at the far post before Spencer produced a stunning save to stop Allen’s thumping header, that looked destined for the back of the net, as she tipped it onto the crossbar to keep the scoreline level.

Following her incredible save, Spencer sadly went off injured and was replaced by Chloe Morgan and 10 minutes later, Reading were ahead when a goalmouth scramble ended with the ball being prodded in by Allen in the 88th minute.

Karen and Juan brought forwards Lucy Quinn and Angela Addison on in injury time to try and salvage something from the match, but our attempts meant too many players were pushed forward and Reading capitalised by sending Eikeland through on goal on the counter-attack and she made no mistake by dispatching the chance and sealing the points at Adams Park.

Coach's view

At full-time, Head Coach Karen Hills said: "I was really impressed with our performance in the first half. We know how strong Reading are and we dealt with their set-pieces really well, especially early on. I think we grew into the game from there and we had some fantastic opportunities so we went in at half-time feeling really positive, but we knew that it would be a tough fight in the second half. It's all about learning, we were ahead and then to lose 3-1 is frustrating and the players are really disappointed with how we conceded the goals but we've just got to learn from it, move on and be better next time."

Match data

Goals: Reading - Potter 77, Allen 88, Eikeland 90+9; Spurs - Worm 52. 

Yellow cards: Reading - Howard, Leine, Allen, Chaplen; Spurs - Dean.

Referee: Stacey Pearson.

Venue: Adams Park, High Wycombe.

Weather: Partly cloudy, nine degrees.

Attendance: 715.