Ladies settle for second best
NEWBURY & Thatcham Ladies suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Phoenix & Ranelagh in the Trysports League Premier 1.
Newbury were searching their second win of the season, but previously winless Phoenix dashed their hopes with a 2-0 victory at Henwick.
Laura Wells was player of the match for Newbury, who are away to Oxford 2nd on Saturday.
Newbury 2nd moved up to fifth in Division 1 after coming from behind to beat Banbury 2nd 3-2.
Banbury went ahead inside 10 minutes, but Newbury hit back when Mary Cavanagh’s shot from a short corner was tipped in by Lucinda Jago.
Banbury regained their lead before the break, but Newbury hit back strongly in the second half.
Good work by Jess Brewin set up Megan Smith to score, before Newbury keeper Alice Keppel-Compton pulled off a fine save to deny the home side.
And it was Newbury who grabbed the winner when player-of-the-match Lucy Gilbert earned another short corner and Cavanagh passed to Helen Vaughan-Graham to fire home at the far post.
Newbury 3rd XI are still searching for their first win after going down 2-0 against Wycombe 3rd in Division 2.
Newbury keeper Sophia Zurek pulled off a string of fine saves before she was beaten by a deflected shot.
And Wycombe wrapped up the points in the second half with the killer goal.
Player of the match for Newbury was Kirsty Stokes.
Helen Hamlin was on target for Newbury 4th, but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from slipping to a 2-1 defeat against Division 5 leaders Thame 2nd.
And Newbury 5th also lost, going down 2-0 at the hands of Aylesbury 4th, despite a player-of-the-match performance from Anna Kieras.