It’s a case of deja vu for Reading FC Women are set to make a return to Adams Park, but on this occasion they’re the visitors, not the hosts.
Rewind all the way back to December 2015 it was announced that Reading would play their home games at Adams Park, the home of Wycombe Wanderers for at least the next two seasons but remained there until the 2019/20 season before they made the permanent move to Madejski Stadium.
The club made the switch to Adams Park after they gained promotion to the FA Women’s Super League (FA WSL) in 2015. In the same season, they signed the relatively unknown Mary Earps from Bristol Academy. The first few seasons were filled with relatively un-newsworthy moments as they looked to establish themselves in the top flight of women’s football. Though they did regularly draw crowds of 500 plus.
The 2017/18 season proved to be pivotal for the Royals as they secured their services of WSL legend Fara Williams, and the love affair with a Welsh contingent really cemented itself with Tash Harding signing and playing alongside Rachel Rowe, Charlie Estcourt, Melissa Fletcher and Evie Gane.
Related: FC Bracknell youngsters put through their paces by Reading FC Women goalkeeper Mary Earps
The Royals final home game of the season against Liverpool drew an impressive crowd of 1,379.
As the 2018/19 season kicked off, a real buzz of potential floated around Reading as they began to show they could compete with the big clubs in the division having secured fourth behind Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal.
It would prove to be a season for cup jubilation and heartbreak when they made it to quarter finals of the League Cup before Chelsea inflicted a 4-0 thumping. But it was the FA Cup that delivered the real electricity, facing West Ham United in the semi-final. In front of a crowd of 2,334, Rachel Furness fired home in the 48th minute only to be pegged back by an Alisha Lehmann strike nine minutes later.
Neither side could break the deadlock in extra and it went to penalties with West Ham captain Cho So-Hyun administering the final blow to deny the Royals a chance of a place at Wembley.
The 2019/20 season was marred by the Coronavirus but Royals retained their fifth place position on sporting merit when The FA Board’s decided to award places on a points-per-game basis. They got their own back on Chelsea in the League Cup winning 4-2 on penalties with Rachel Laws, the star between the sticks.
The season would prove to be the last at Adams Park before they made the permanent move to the clubs stadium in Reading.
