IT HAS been quite a year for Reading FC Women with the club following up promotion to FA WSL 1 by consolidating their position in the top flight. Tom Crocker takes a look back at what was a successful campaign:
MISSION accomplished.
Reading FC Women have avoided relegation, comfortably, and will be an FA WSL 1 club again next season.
Despite a below par display and disappointing result on the final day against Doncaster Belles, there can only be positives heaped on Reading Women and in particular manager Kelly Chambers this season.
Yes, they would have liked to have signed off with a first home win of the campaign but in truth, the hard work was done in the reverse tie away at Doncaster in September when a 4-1 success all but sealed their fate.
The message from the start of the season was always clear: survival is the only aim.
That may on the face of it seem a little unambitious from a team who had just stormed to promotion the season before, scoring 61 goals from 18 games and only losing once.
But the step up in class from WSL 2 to WSL 1 is huge and so it has proved with Royals and Belles ending the season as the bottom two sides in the division.
From a bunch of talented part-time players competing with and generally beating other part-time players to taking on household international names on a weekly basis and struggling to find a victory.
From training once or twice a week at 9pm on artificial pitches to full-time training, every day at the well-renowned Bisham Abbey national sports centre.
From travelling miles, some from as far away as Wales to Reading for an evening session before heading into work at 9 o’clock the next morning to quitting jobs and becoming a
professional footballer.
These are all things Reading can now continue to get used to as they have secured their status as one of the elite 10 clubs in the country until at least 2018.
And Chambers have overseen that transition magnificently.
A coach first and foremost, Chambers is a former captain at Reading and continues to work with the girls lower age groups and is very much the heartbeat of the club having first taken the reins of management when the club were in the third tier.
And she has this season proved her worth among the best by ensuring Royals competed and battled hard in every single game they went into.
The club’s biggest defeat was 3-0 at home to the then champions Chelsea, although the Blues scored twice in stoppage time on that occasion to add some gloss to the win.
Elsewhere, Doncaster conceded at least four goals on eight occasions while the likes of Sunderland and Notts County were thrashed 7-1 and 5-1 at points during the campaign.
The fact Reading never suffered a similar fate is no coincidence as they ground out six draws from their first nine games of the season to show how tough they were to beat.
And each time, rather than dwelling on the fact that a team so used to winning were still yet to register a victory, Chambers always insisted the draws were another point towards safety.
Chambers has kept faith in the majority of the squad which won promotion but also showed
the ruthless streak needed to be a top manager, drafting in England goalkeeper Mary Earps to usurp fans’ favourite Grace Moloney.
That decision has proved vital with Earps rightly being named the club’s Player of the Season after a string of outstanding displays which may well have turned heads of some other clubs in the division.
And Chambers is willing to admit that her squad may need a little reshuffle if they are to kick on next season, citing more experienced players used to playing top flight football to help along her young side.
The fact the manager, still in her early 30s, has juggled the pressure of the biggest season in the club’s history with also giving birth and returning to take charge of a game later that week just adds to the wonder of hers and Reading’s achievements this season.
There have been mistakes along the way and the club will have undoubtedly eyed more than just one win all campaign.
But one win is all it took to achieve the goal.
