Sandhurst Town 0-1 Reading Town (Tues 13th Jan B&B)

I won't be attending this game as I have a lot of revision to do for my exams. The weather is meant to get better over the next few days with the temperature getting above freezing. Reading Town do like playing against Sandhurst as they beat them both home and away last season. Sandhurst are currently 18th in the Combined Counties League on 22 points season.

So if anyone on here does decide to go the match if it's on then please post a match report on here and I will publish it on the site!!!

STFC

Website: http://www.sandhursttownfc.com/Processes/3/23234E3B9FE74FECA15C228533BD6131.htm

Clubhouse Number: 01252 878768

Admission Charges
Adults £6
Concession £3
Children Under 14 go for free

Providing there's a good chance it'll be on, I'll probably go. If I do I'll try and write up some sort of report.

Just seen the result on the Hellenic League site and the Reading boys won 1-0 which is great. The team progress to the next round (the Semi Final ) The Town will therefore face one of these teams in the semis: Newport Pagnell Town after they beat Hungerford 2-1, Flackwell who edged past Marlow 1-0, and either Wantage or Aylesbury Vale who are to play next Tuesday night. Exciting times for the mighty Town and another clean sheet . Does anyone know where the final is played? Also are the semi-finals played at a natural event just like the FA Cup? Or is it the luck of the draw if you play home or away in the semi final?

As I didn't manage to get to this game could the players, managers and Reading Town fans give me their thoughts of the game. I will then combined peoples thought into the match report and put it on the site.

We've got Flackwell Heath in the semi-final, I believe at Scours Lane. A very winnable game. Newport Pagnell Town also beat Hungerford and will play Aylesbury Vale or Wantage Town in their semi-final. Not sure if the final venue has been decided yet, last year it was at Aylesbury Vale's ground, in 2007 it was as Marlow, in 2006 it was at Thatcham, and in 2005 it was at Didcot.

The official site has a decent report up, and my attempt is below.

Reading Town booked their place in the Berks & Bucks Senior Trophy semi-final by overcoming a Sandhurst fightback and a questionable performance from the referee.

The first few minutes of the game were spent mainly in the Reading half with Sandhurst having much of the ball, but creating very little, with only a long range effort of any note. Soon after however James Suarez, Scott Rees and Lucca Riccio were able to control the game from the midfield and much of the half afterwards saw Reading the better team, with Danny Williamson linking up well with Ray Spence down the right. Reading Town had a couple of decent chances but were unable to seriously test the Sandhurst keeper. Graham Lewis found himself on the end of some very physical tackling from the Sandhurst players with one incident of note between him and a Sandhurst player in the area after the ball had gone out for a corner. However he had the perfect answer just minutes later as he got in behind the defence to latch onto a ball from Sam Flegg, he held off his marker well and then put the ball past the onrushing keeper to put Reading into a 1-0 lead with ten minutes to go until half-time. Ray Spence had three chances before half-time. In one, on the stroke of half-time he appeared to be brought down in the penalty area by the Sandhurst keeper for what seemed a clear cut penalty. The referee however thought otherwise and booked Spence.

While the first half had seen some good football, the second was a lot more scrappy with the ref either stopping the game when he could have allowed it to play on, or missing a number of late challenges. Reading were reduced to ten men about midway through the half after what didn't look like a bad challenge from Ray Spence, followed by a quite loud appeal by the Sandhurst bench. Indeed the ref seemed to make his decisions based on whether there was an appeal on a number of occasions. Sandhurst made use of their superior numbers to put the Reading defence under pressure, Mike Hancock and Sam Flegg both marshalled the defence well though to keep Sandhurst at bay. Despite being down to ten men Reading were still dangerous on the break and had a couple of good opportunities to add to the score. Sam Flegg saw a good opportunity go over after he got on the end of a Hancock flick on from a Suarez corner. Graham Lewis was also just a whisker away from getting a second as he was nearly on the end of a good delivery from a free-kick. A decent contact with the ball and it surely would have gone in. A Reading Town player again saw red, after the referee had seemingly let play carry on following a Hancock tackle on the edge of the Reading area, it wasn't until Reading had got the ball into Sandhurst's half that the referee did bring the game back and showed a red card to Hancock leaving Reading down to nine men for the last ten minutes or so. Sandhurst put the Reading goal under siege for the remaining minutes, creating a number of opportunities for themselves, but Chris Grace commanded his area well to keep a clean age. After what seemed an age of injury time the referee finally blew to whistle to send Reading through, following a hard fought win.

Man of the match: As has been the norm over the last couple of months, any number of players could get this, Danny Williamson attacked well in the first half, and made a number of crucial blocks. Graham Lewis troubled the Sandhurst defence all night as well. James Clark also deserves a mention as well I think, as he chased down plenty of balls and put the Sandhurst defenders under pressure to win plenty of throw ons and a couple of corners. My man of the match though would be Scotty Rees, he defended well all night and also set up a number of attacks.