Five-star Reading send Yeovil down

Yeovil Town Ladies 0 Reading Women 5

FARA WILLIAMS opened the scoring in the first half before a clinical Royals side ran riot in the second half with both Lauren Bruton and Millie Farrow claiming braces to seal a fruitful afternoon.

The Royals bounced back from their FA Cup semi-final heartbreak in style as they thumped Yeovil 5-0 away from home to relegate their opponents to the second tier.

Reading captain Williams opened the scoring to put the visitors in front going into half time as she swivelled before unleashing an unstoppable curling effort into the top right hand corner from 20 yards out.

Bruton then doubled the visitors lead shortly after the break as she finished off a fine team move.

Playing with freedom following their 2-0 lead, the Royals stepped it up a gear and enjoyed a clinical last 10 minutes as Gemma Davison drove through the heart of the Yeovil defence and set up Farrow to score her first goal of the match.

Bruton then notched her second and Reading’s fourth goal of the afternoon as another quick passing move allowed her to roam into the box and side foot the ball calmly past the goalkeeper.

Heading into injury time the Royals added a fifth and final goal as Furness raced onto a clipped through ball over the top from Rakel Honnudottir and squeezed the ball over the line on the rebound after her first attempt was saved.

Reading manager Kelly Chambers said, “After the FA Cup semi-final defeat, we needed to make sure we got three points, the girls showed great resilience.

“We could have easily come here and moped about the pitch but we turned up and were professional.

“We weren’t happy at half-time, we were too slow. We wanted more energy and speed which happened in the second half.”

Reading: Moloney; Jane, Williams (Bartrip 76), Pearce (C), Davison, Hönnudóttir (Farrow 78), Bailey, Estcourt, Moore (Bruton 45), Howard, Woodham

Subs not used: Laws, Pacheco, Furness, Harding

Scorers: Williams (31) Bruton (54 & 83) Farrow (81 & 90)

Yeovil Town: Walsh; Buxton (Goddard 44), Mason, Short (Cousins 16), Alexander, Syme (Bloomfield 77), Evans, Horwood, Donovan, Heatherson, Fergusson