Reading Women face a stern test when they travel to title-chasers Manchester City on Saturday.
After a monumental week for women’s football after the Women’s Super League announced a record-breaking TV rights deal with BBC and Sky Sports to begin from next season, the Royals will be hoping for a monumental week of their own.
The Royals put in one of their best displays of the season when they last met City as they earned a draw at the Madejski Stadium in October.
Kelly Chambers’ side flew out of the traps and took an early lead through Amalie Eikeland who turned in from Brooke Chaplen’s delivery to give Reading a dream start.
Reading goalkeeper Grace Moloney came to the rescue on several occasions as the Royals put up a determined front for City to try and break down.
City eventually found a way past when Sam Mewis scored in the 56th minute, but Reading held on to earn a well deserved point.
Gareth Taylor’s City side are in scintillating form going into the game on Sunday with nine consecutive competitions.
City haven’t suffered defeat since January when they were knocked out of the FA WSL Cup by Chelsea and have been on a path of destruction ever since which has seen them score an astonishing 32 goals in their last nine games.
They have also been formidable at the back and have only conceded two goals in their previous nine fixtures in all competitions and have their sights on the WSL title and European glory in the Women’s Champions League.
City breezed past Fiorentina in the round-of-16 with an 8-0 aggregate win to set up a quarter-final tie against Barcelona.
After Manchester United’s defeat to Arsenal last Friday, it appears to be a two horse race for the WSL title with City and Chelsea engrossed in a tense title battle.
Chelsea currently have a two-point lead over City after 18 games each with just five games left to play.
The Royals will be hoping to halt City’s title chase but are on a run of stuttering form after they were held to a goalless stalemate in their last league game, at home to Tottenham.
Reading have won just two of their last eight games as their inconsistent form sees them in a disappointing seventh position in the league table as they enter the final period of the campaign.
Reading Women’s manager Chambers wants her side to build on the clean sheet against Spurs when they face City on Saturday.
Chambers said: “We need to build, in terms of continuing to push, making sure that we keep working on defensive detail that we had, but also making sure we are working on our intensity.
“We create chances week in, week out. It was the same against Bristol, we had so many opportunities to put that game to bed, as we did against Tottenham, so we need to keep working and learning.
“There’s no hiding it, we haven’t been good enough in either box this season.
“So if I can make sure that we defend our box better, then hopefully we can produce more higher up too and keep building from now.
“It’s all about keeping momentum going. We had a lot of it after our good run of games recently.”
