Reading manager Kelly Chambers said that she was disappointed with the manner of some of the goals conceded as her side slipped to a 4-0 defeat at Arsenal this evening.
The Royals had been flying until a couple of weeks ago but they are now three matches without a win and were well-beaten by an Arsenal side who are back to their best.
When speaking about the elements of Reading’s performance that let them down at Arsenal, Chambers said that the most disappointing factor was the manner in which two of the goals were conceded.
“I don’t think we were aggressive enough in the first half defensively,” Chambers told FAWSL Full-Time after the final whistle. “I think we frustrated them well for the first 20 minutes but we gave them some easy goals that we probably wouldn’t have conceded a couple of months ago.
“That was the disappointing thing for me, we gave them a couple of goals and I didn’t think that they carved us open as if they were going to score.
“I said to the girls at half-time that we needed to be more aggressive, more front-footed defensively and what we needed to do regardless of the score was to carry on performing and I felt that the second half performance was so much better.”
Chambers fielded a team which was made up of a real mix of youth and experience. She went on to say that the game was important for the development of youngsters Rhiannon Stewart, Lily Woodham, Emma Harries and Tia Primmer.
She said “It’s huge. For the likes of those players, they get to learn so much and they’ll get to do analysis after this. To step into that game after playing 120 minutes on Sunday, we knew that this was going to be physically tough for us.
“For players like that, it is about taking every moment in their stride and I thought that the performances of each individual, especially Rhiannon who has stepped in for Grace (Moloney)….they’ve done really well.”
Reading are back in action again on Sunday when Tottenham Hotspur are the visitors to The Madejski Stadium.
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