After 3 away games and 3 wins Titans returned to Trent Park for a home fixture against an old nemesis of Reading.

Missing skipper Jatin and midfield lynchpin Nigel, Titans matched a strong Reading team in the early exchanges with the visitors  soon into their stride of moving us around smartly around and searching for weaknesses.

An even opening period was then interrupted as Peds was dispossessed inside the 22 allowing Reading to create an overload and take the lead.

Titans regrouped with man of the match Greg covering acres of ground and making a nuisance of himself, with one particularly mazy run seemingly taking on the whole midfield and defence.

Titans were moving the ball well and were rewarded with a short corner that Greg coolly despatched with a first time strike low into the corner, 1-1 and game on. The old Reading surfaced with much chirping about decisions and irritation of being competed with and umpire Prior having to remind them who was umpire.

Chances for both teams but the first half was still even until an aerial ball from the Reading midfield was brought down in a slightly murky fashion allowing the forward to turn Biffi and again create an overlap leaving keeper Justin no chance.

Half time 1-2 down but Manager Pokey stressed the positives to keep doing what we were doing.
Reading started the second half well putting the defence under pressure and from this scored their third after an initial save from Justin. Titans were now wobbling and from more pressure won a short corner, that broke down but the recycled ball wasn’t cut out allowing Reading to get their fourth.

More Reading pressure and confusion in the Titans defence allowed a scrappy fifth and looking like a hard last 15 minutes. Titans rallied and started to regain possession, moving the ball better and creating chances which unfortunately didn’t quite work out. Slick work from Howie and Howard Clayden led to Brian being upended for another short corner, which although it broke down, Clayden smartly stuck away a first time shot to bring some respectability back to the score.

Reading played smart keep ball hockey and the game petered out to a first loss of the season for Titans, although the 2-5 score line was slightly flattering to the opposition. Wolfie engaging in some interesting changing room discussion with the opposition about the variants of soapy water kind of summed up the afternoon.