READING men are one of only two teams to have taken maximum points from their opening two matches in the Premier Division, writes Dave Wright.

The new-look Blues followed up their 4-1 win at Sevenoaks by crushing Canterbury 5-0 at Sonning Lane on Sunday.

Head coach Jason Lee said: “It was a nice win with some good goals.

“We played a little better than last week as players are getting to know each other and so beginning to play together.”

Some of their link-up play at times was superb and Reading could easily have won by even a wider margin.

They had a great chance to open the scoring after two minutes when they were awarded a penalty stroke, only for Tom Carson to see his shot saved by keeper Nathan Redman low down to his right.

But Carson was involved in the opening goal, finding Tim Atkins who made no mistake following a penalty corner in the 18th minute and the Scotland defender wasn’t far away from a repeat with his side’s fourth corner.

Quick thinking by skipper Carson, taking defenders with him as he raced across the circle, let Ben Boon into an empty space to connect with Ben Francis’ through ball and it was 2-0 after 23 minutes.

It wasn’t entirely one-way and it needed two fine saves by Tommy Alexander to deny Canterbury a penalty-corner goal.

But Reading were clearly the superior side and they increased their advantage on 58 minutes when Ed Carson teed-up Nick Park.

Three minutes later new signing Lee Mason produced a smart finish to make it 4-0 and Tom Carson completed the scoring with the last touch of the game.

While pleased with the result and a clean sheet, Lee wasn’t getting too carried away, saying: “Unfortunately, I think Canterbury might struggle this year, so it was nice to get them this early in the season, as we are still trying to find our feet.”

He added: “With two wins behind us, this will give us something to build on. But we have Beeston and Holcombe coming up and they are going to be tougher games.”

Lee revealed that Blues have so much strength in depth that he left James Carson out of his 16 squad on Sunday, having done the same to his fellow Wales international, Dale Hutchinson, the previous week.

“The squad is so strong that we will continue to rotate the squad to give people some games.”

Blues travel to Nottingham on Sunday (2pm) to face a Beeston side who have a win and draw behind them.

l READING Women also made it two wins out of two by defeating Cannock 3-0 in their Conference West match at Sonning Lane on Saturday.

Blues had much the better of the game, spending long periods in their opponents’ half and squandering numerous chances, while Emma Royce struck the post from a penalty corner.

It wasn’t until the 52nd minute when they managed to find the net with Sophie Shakespeare touching in Abbie Dixon’s on-target shot.

Keelie Perham, her side’s best player, also scored for the second successive week when doubling the lead on 63 minutes, with Emily Harris capping a good all-round team performance by netting the third two minutes from time.

Reading make the long trip down the M4 to play Swansea City on Saturday.