Oxford City Women were beaten 2-1 by Denham in the Chairman’s Cup this afternoon in their first cup final of the season at Reading City.

Trailing to goals from Brogan Moore and Niamh Cashin at the break, City fought their way back into the game with a goal from top scorer Ellie White but just coudn't find a second to force the game into penalties.

City got off to a poor start by conceding inside five minutes. A swift break left Denham with an overload inside the area and although keeper Kiera Maskell did well to scramble the first effort away the rebound fell straight to a Denham player whose shot was handled on the line by Poppy Gorman. Moore stepped up to confidently beat Maskell from the spot and give Denham an early lead.

On a difficult, dry surface City responded well to the early setback with a trademark Billie Bough-French free kick drawing a decent save from home keeper Zara Butt and skipper Grace Craven driving her team forward in the middle of the park. Chances remained at a premium against a determined Denham defence though and on the stroke of half time it was double Denham as midfielder Chasin stole in to steer home from close range and make it 2-0 .

Character was required and eight minutes after the restart City were back in the game when White netted her 20^th goal of the season with an excellent finish. A simple ball down the right allowed the striker to get free and as the keeper came out she lobbed the ball over her for a fine goal to make it 1-2

 City then threw everything they had at the creaking Denham back line without getting that one clear chance they needed.

No late drama then but a fine game of football and congratulations to Denham. City will  have a chance to make amends when they take on Kidlington in the County Cup 

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CITY
Maskell, Gorman, Bough-French, Prescott-Luke, Wellington-Faissal, Lester, Craven, Walecki, Ayres, E White, Harris

 SUBS
Parsons, Davis, O’Leary, White, Ranxha

Report by Chris Williams, pictures Darrell Fisher