Barnet FC Ladies 10-2 Reading Royals
The FA Women's Cup sponsored by E.ON
Third Round Proper
Sunday 2 December 2007
Reynolds Field, Hanwell Town FC
Click here for results








Reading Royals' position in The FA Tesco Women's Premier League's Southern Division is precarious, with no points from 13 matches and 116 goals conceded, so they would hardly have been relishing yesterday's FA Women's Cup tie at Hanwell.

They managed to keep Barnet, ten places above them, at bay for 14 minutes with a multi-layered defence but it was 2-0 to the hosts within a minute and after that it was just a question of trying to keep the score down.

Davina Smith's left-wing corner into the near post was pony-tailed into her own net by Amber Luzar and Stacey Sowden slipped past the last defender to slam in a second almost straight from the restart.

Royals 'keeper Emily Cure made a string of decent stops before Smith's free-kick from the left flew over her head for 3-0 on 28 minutes.

Sowden and Claire Thomas netted from close range on 37 and 39 minutes and Lydia Bedford made it a healthy 6-0 at the break.

Royals had lost their last two League fixtures 12-0 but they had a much better second half, putting in some timely tackles in midfield and moving forward themselves to test the Barnet defence.

Four minutes into the second half Victoria James scored with a speculative 30-yarder for the Royals and was mobbed by ecstatic team-mates. Normal service was resumed as perky left-winger Gemma Shepherd made it 7-1 on 55 minutes and substitute Holly Sandow raced into the box to add another nine minutes later.

James reduced the arrears with another splendid strike on 77 minutes, but Sowden quickly completed her hat-trick to restore Barnet's seven-goal advantage at 9-2.

As the match entered its last minute, Royals could reflect on only having lost the second half 3-2, but then Thomas crashed in a tenth and referee Ricky Deller blew for time almost immediately.

Barnet, Cup Finalists in 1997 when they were 'Wembley Ladies', now welcome the Royals to Hanwell again next weekend in the League.

Yesterday club captain Charlotte Herson made her 138th first-team appearance, equalling a Barnet record.

Press Secretary John Taylor said: "We're quite pleased. We knew Reading would struggle, so the win was something of a foregone conclusion. We were just focusing on getting through to the next round."

The Fourth Round is set to be played on 6 January and Barnet are hoping their recent good form will continue into the new year.

On potential opponents Taylor added: "We'll have confidence playing against anyone of our level or slightly above, but we're hoping not to get drawn against the stronger teams until a later point in the competition."

Other Third Round results saw Sunderland knock Tranmere Rovers out with a 5-1 win, while Rotherham swept past Rochdale 6-3.

It was much tougher for Lincoln City and Leicester City, who secured narrow 1-0 victories over Coventry City and Nottingham Forest respectively. And Newcastle needed just one goal as well in their win over Stockport County.

Swindon Town edged Plymouth Argyle on penalties after a 1-1 draw, while nine other ties will be played this coming Sunday after being postponed yesterday.