On a very cold Saturday morning the boys turned up ready to play against a 10 man Abingdon School who were let down by four of their players. Things took a turn for the worse for Abingdon as an A team player became injured and so a B team member was called up forcing them to play with 9. This only affected their fitness in the long term as what seemed to be a smaller pitch played into their hands.
Reading started well with some good movement and a real intent to attack. Sammith Raj was extremely dangerous down the left wing causing a lot of trouble for opposite numbers but was unlucky not to get that final pass or shot away to trouble the keeper.
Our defence stood very strong with Adam Ianev leading the charge and making sure no man shall pass, with the ball at least, and cleared effectively alongside Ben Harrison. THe defence also including Jake Melhuish and Nikhil Shabong had a bit of a tough day at the office with Abingdon having some very fast attackers - pretty much playing a 4 in D 4 in attack formation.
Coming up to half time there was not much difference between the teams with a couple of missed chances on both sides. Scott Hogbin showing his pace on a number of occasions tended to just be outmuscled just before he could get a shot away.
The defining moment from the half came as an Abindgon high cross wasn't cleared by the defence or collected by goal keeper Shivesh Mistry and the towering Abingdon striker managed to get a foot to the ball and put it in the bottom left corner.
1-0 at half time.
The second half the Reading boys went out with a lot of attacking intent. Scott Hogbin and Tony Xu led the attack extremely well. Well placed long balls and quick counters meant the two attackers had a lot of time on the ball but were still unable to get those shots on goal as Abingdon showed incredible determination to make it back to defend. Abingdon showed signs of tiring but instead of being unable to keep up with play they became more physical in the tackles and Reading boys weren't quite able to deal with this in attack.
In defence for Reading the boys held on very well as Abingdon tried to counter attack at every opportunity.
In the end an exhausted Abingdon held on for the win with Readings closest opportunity coming from Tony Xu who hit the ball 20m out but unfortunately it wasn't quite able to dip enough into the goal and just scraped over the top of the crossbar.
A really well fought game by two teams but just that inability to shoot on goal and not always willing to take that shot until comfortable is costing a very good Reading School B team a chance of winning games.
Reading started well with some good movement and a real intent to attack. Sammith Raj was extremely dangerous down the left wing causing a lot of trouble for opposite numbers but was unlucky not to get that final pass or shot away to trouble the keeper.
Our defence stood very strong with Adam Ianev leading the charge and making sure no man shall pass, with the ball at least, and cleared effectively alongside Ben Harrison. THe defence also including Jake Melhuish and Nikhil Shabong had a bit of a tough day at the office with Abingdon having some very fast attackers - pretty much playing a 4 in D 4 in attack formation.
Coming up to half time there was not much difference between the teams with a couple of missed chances on both sides. Scott Hogbin showing his pace on a number of occasions tended to just be outmuscled just before he could get a shot away.
The defining moment from the half came as an Abindgon high cross wasn't cleared by the defence or collected by goal keeper Shivesh Mistry and the towering Abingdon striker managed to get a foot to the ball and put it in the bottom left corner.
1-0 at half time.
The second half the Reading boys went out with a lot of attacking intent. Scott Hogbin and Tony Xu led the attack extremely well. Well placed long balls and quick counters meant the two attackers had a lot of time on the ball but were still unable to get those shots on goal as Abingdon showed incredible determination to make it back to defend. Abingdon showed signs of tiring but instead of being unable to keep up with play they became more physical in the tackles and Reading boys weren't quite able to deal with this in attack.
In defence for Reading the boys held on very well as Abingdon tried to counter attack at every opportunity.
In the end an exhausted Abingdon held on for the win with Readings closest opportunity coming from Tony Xu who hit the ball 20m out but unfortunately it wasn't quite able to dip enough into the goal and just scraped over the top of the crossbar.
A really well fought game by two teams but just that inability to shoot on goal and not always willing to take that shot until comfortable is costing a very good Reading School B team a chance of winning games.