SLOUGH Hockey Club ladies suffered a heart-breaking exit from the National Indoor Championships on Saturday.

The Upton Court Park club qualified for the semi-finals with three games to spare, though a defeat to Bowdon Hightown cost them the Women’s Premier title.

They booked their place in the last four by coming from behind to beat Reading and, with Alex Scott in red-hot form, were confident of victory over top seeds again.

Slough got off to a disastrous start in the all-Berkshire tie at Kettering and found themselves three goals behind before half-time.

However, England and Great Britain star Ashleigh Ball rallied her troops, who fought back to level the match at 3-3, much to the delight of the travelling supporters.

But, seconds away from a shoot-out, her international companion Alex Danson bagged a late winner to send the Sonning Lane ladies to Wembley.

After the game, Ball said: “All credit to Reading, they deserve their place in the final after a well-fought game.

“We did our utmost to beat them but in the end we just couldn’t quite manage it. It came down to a very small margin in the end.

“If we’d come top we might have got a favourable draw as first plays fourth. We beat Reading in the league and we were confident we could beat them again.” Reading took a ninth minute lead when Kate Richardson-Walsh showed good vision to find wife Helen, who turned into space and slotted past goalkeeper Maddie Hinch.

Slough were rocked by the goal and conceded a second soon after, this time Danson rolling a defender and sliding the ball past the advancing Hinch.

Reading kept threatening but the brilliance of former Leicester stopper Hinch kept them at bay, though even she could do little to keep out a fierce penalty corner from Danson to make it 3-0.

To their credit, the Upton Court Park girls stuck to the task and pulled one back before half-time through Mel Ball’s penalty corner. It could have been two, but Scott’s drag flick crashed against the post and bounced to safety.

Slough came out with renewed optimism in the second half and got their reward on 32 minutes when a low Ball penalty corner snuck past Sara Ellis and found the backboard.

Reading thought they had weathered a storm, but were pegged back four minutes from time as Scott showed excellent composure to lift the ball over Ellis and into the roof of the net, There was still time for one final twist and it went the way of the defending champions, Danson peeling away from her marker and firing low past Hinch to complete her hat-trick.

Reading captain Emma Thomas was overjoyed at the prospect of a fourth consecutive appearance at the Wembley Arena.

“The great thing about indoor hockey is you only need a few seconds to score a goal and we’re fully aware of that,” she said.

“We’ve seen the men score three in 30 seconds, so when you only need one there really is no excuse not to keep going until the final whistle, which is exactly what we did.

“We’re obviously absolutely thrilled to be going back to Wembley but Slough deserve a lot of credit, they were outstanding and put up a really strong fight.

“They came back in the second half and made it really difficult for us. They showed what an excellent team they are, and showed us some things we need to work on between now and the final.” Elsewhere, Slough ladies 2s won 4-1 at Wokingham 2s to go third in Division One of the Trysports Hockey League. They host Milton Keynes tomorrow (Saturday) with a 2.35pm push back.

Windsor Hockey Club ladies first and second teams face a battle to avoid relegation this season after both returned to action with heavy defeats on Saturday.

The first team prop up the Trysports Premier Two table after a 4-0 defeat at Wokingham, though they could leapfrog Banbury 2s into eighth position with a win at Windsor Boys’ School tomorrow (3.30pm).

The second team are now three points adrift of the rest of the Division Three pack following a 5-1 home defeat against Harlow & High Wycombe.

A cruel bounce saw Windsor concede early, though the visitors were three ahead at half-time and bagged two more before the determined Fiona Munnelly restored some pride.

The second team welcome Wallingford 3s tomorrow with a 12.30pm push back.

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