Lauren Hemp’s mazy run set up a Chloe Kelly strike in the eighty-sixth minute to continue City’s unstoppable form in the WSL and deny Reading a point from a resolute defensive performance.
Manchester City welcomed Reading to the Academy Stadium coming off of a three-nil first leg loss to Barcelona Women in the Women’s Champions League quarter finals in midweek.
The hosts will have looked towards this game as a golden opportunity to regain their confidence as they face a Reading side that is winless in their last three with the prospect of overtaking Chelsea at the top of the WSL with a win.
City were without captain Steph Houghton with an injury that will reportedly keep her out for another two to three weeks and Gareth Taylor chose to rest his side’s two top scorers in Ellen White and Sam Mewis for this tie.
Conversely, Reading would have been bolstered by the return of Rachel Rowe after being suspended for their last game against Tottenham, but this would be Jess Fishlock’s penultimate game for the Royals after being recalled from her loan spell in Berkshire by OL Reign.
City would start the game subjecting the visitors to wave after wave of pressure, dispossessing their opponents high up the field routinely but their attempts were consistently thwarted by a spirited performance from Reading ‘keeper Grace Moloney.
The first twenty minutes of the game would feature a host of chances for the Manchester outfit but soon after Reading would almost take the lead entirely against the run of play as Fishlock was able to thread a ball in between the City centre half and full back to meet the run of Amalie Eikeland.
Ellie Roebuck in the Manchester City goal was able to deny the Norwegian striker with her outstretched foot, but Kelly Chambers would have likely been hoping for more from Eikeland after finding herself one-on-one with the ‘keeper.
Manchester City would leave another chance begging after the half hour mark as Chloe Kelly made a surging run down the right wing, where City found most of their success in the first half and fired a pass across goal.
Her cross would find Georgia Stanway who couldn’t find the net from close distance as her effort trickled out for a goal kick at the far post.
The hosts would carve out their best chance at breaking the deadlock with five minutes left in the half as another Chloe Kelly cross would find Lauren Hemp at the far post. Hemp would beat Moloney with her strike, but her shot would rattle the woodwork and come out.
City would have been aggrieved to come away from that passage of play without a goal as Stanway was also brought down in the box by Tash Harding as the cross came in but her appeals for a penalty were waved away from referee Stacey Pearson.
The Royals would end the half with a positive spell of play from multiple set pieces but were not able to steal the lead going into the break as the first half ended goalless for both sides.
The second half would begin in an almost mirror image of the first as the home side would have a continued spell of possession and would press the Royals deep into their own half.
Just after the hour mark, City manager Gareth Taylor clearly found that his side needed an injection of quality as Sam Mewis would be substituted on for her U.S Women’s National Team compatriot Rose Lavelle, and Ellen White would replace Stanway soon after.
Manchester City would leave yet another chance empty with under a quarter of an hour to play as Chloe Kelly found Caroline Weir inside the area, but the Scottish midfielder was unable to keep her shot down and could only watch as her effort flew over the bar.
As the game crept closer to the fulltime whistle, the hosts’ attacks got more desperate as it looked as if their run of ten consecutive wins in the WSL was coming to an end.
As both sides fatigued, City would finally find the breakthrough on the eighty-sixth minute after a weaving run from Lauren Hemp.
Hemp would skip past multiple defenders and play the ball across the face of goal, into the path of Chloe Kelly. Kelly was left with a straightforward finish to put the home side ahead and send the Manchester players into jubilation.
City would simply see the rest of the game out for a hard-fought one-nil victory where they were most certainly tested to secure their eleventh WSL victory in a row.
The result takes Manchester City to the top of the WSL for at least twenty-four hours before Chelsea play Aston Villa on Sunday, while Reading remain in seventh, a point behind sixth-placed Brighton, albeit with the Seagulls boasting a game in hand.
City’s next game will be the second leg of their Champions League quarter final clash with Barcelona on Wednesday, while the Royals will look to mark a new month with a win when they host West Ham on the third of April.
The Inbound Observer 