Table-topping United are hoping for a right Royals result
TOP-OF-THE-TABLE United travel to Reading today as Casey Stoney’s side aim to keep up their unbeaten start to the Women’s Super League season.
The Reds are unbeaten in their previous two encounters against the Royals.
Reading’s last four Women’s Super League games have ended in a 1-1 scoreline - never before has a team repeated the same score in five successive games in the division.
United’s Christen Press will not be available for selection, having been missing from the squad due to illness for more than a week.
“Unfortunately, she came down with an illness and hasn’t been with us for over a week now,” Stoney said. “So she won’t be available for the weekend and we’re just hoping that she gets healthy again so we can get her back in and around us.”
However, Jackie Groenen has returned to training after she was forced off with a head injury against Aston Villa last weekend and is ready to play after following concussion protocols.
“She’s fully fit,” the United manager said. “She’s been back in, she’s obviously followed concussion protocols.
“She wasn’t happy about coming off, as players don’t, but it was the right decision. As soon as the medics got on the pitch and she said she was feeling dizzy, they said it’s not a risk we can take, so I think we made the right decision as a club to take her off there and then.
“She understood it by half-time, she’d calmed down, her and the doctor made up. She’s fine, she has been back in full training.”
Today’s match at the Madejski Stadium will be United’s first in front of spectators since the WSL was curtailed last season, with up to 2,000 home fans allowed to attend the game.
“[It’s] amazing, it’s just a shame that we can’t get any of our fans in the ground,” Stoney said. “But hopefully the government might change it and then the Bristol game we might be able to get some fans in.
But it’s just great to have people back in the ground, back in the women’s game and supporting the teams.”
Although they sit top, United’s Hayley Ladd isn’t thinking about the title.
“I know it’s a bit boring but I honestly don’t think like that,” she said. “The culture that the staff have instilled here is that we can’t take anything for granted.”