Royals forward, Natasha Dowie, gave the home fans something to savor after a sublime lobbed effort sealed a 1-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday, taking Reading up to sixth in the table.

Dowie enjoyed the opening half of the season scoring three goals, as well as being nominated for the Barclays Player of the Month in November. Now with one goal under her belt already in 2022, Dowie hopes to continue building on this fine form, and explained how the level of togetherness reminds her of her time in Liverpool’s league-winning side.

“Happy, relieved, to be honest,” Dowie began when assessing the game. “I think me personally I had a couple of chances today which could have made the game a lot more relaxing for us but having said that I’m really happy with my goal and thankfully won us the game.

“It probably wasn’t our best performance today, maybe we were just a little bit tired, but the great thing is we weren’t playing to the highest level we know we can but still got the all-important three points – making it six unbeaten and keep on climbing the table.

“I was really happy with it [the goal]. We’ve actually been working a lot this week on the fact that we knew Leicester play a really high line and try to play to exploit those spaces.

“We mentioned how the keeper likes to play on the front foot, and put a lot of time and effort towards one-on-one finishing scenarios and lobbing the keeper. As I was running onto the ball, I saw her off her line slightly and thought this was a good opportunity.

“Having just seen it back now I’m really happy with it, it helps me continue to build on my goal tally, but most importantly another win for the team.

“After having a few weeks off, there was always going to be an element of tiredness and rustiness from the break. You look at our team at the moment, Deanna [Cooper] it was her first game back after two or three months out so is continuing to build on her match fitness which is why she came off at half-time, meaning Justine [Vanhaevermaet] dropping back into defense.

“That is kind of the nature at the team at the moment, a few players playing out of position to cover for one another, and Sanne [Troelsgaard] today being thrown in for her first game getting in a full 90 since not playing competitively for a month.

Dowie “When we cross the white line, our togetherness is a powerful thing!”