WOODLEY United suffered a third straight Hellenic League Division One East defeat as they were thumped 5-0 at home by Milton United.

The Kestrels got off to the worst start possible, falling behind after just two minutes when Kieran Strange headed a deep free-kick into the left corner.

With 15 minutes gone the hosts had a decent spell as Sam Guze saw his free-kick go into the Milton wall after Liam Wilson was bundled over just outside the box, before Kai Parton-Edey came within inches of levelling with a right-footed drive from 20 yards.

Midway through the half saw Woodley create their best chance of the game when a Guze through ball found Toby Briggs on the right side of the box.

However, with Craig Griffiths off his line quickly, Briggs was not able to get enough on his lofted effort, allowing a very good save.

The visitors were then lucky to have 11 men remain on the pitch after a bad tackle on Alex Freeth. Milton doubled their advantage on 26 minutes from a right-wing corner as United keeper Brad Moore got a hand to Henry Bone’s header, but could not keep it out.

Looking for an immediate response, Guze shot over while Parton-Edey dragged a difficult chance wide.

Woodley made a change at the start of the half when centre back Karl Deans, who had picked up a knock, made way for Andrew Gilbert, and switching to a 4-3-3 formation, Jamie Smith missed to the left, Parton-Edey volleyed wide and Liam Wilson saw a good effort just go over.

A lot of the Milton pressure was coming down the right with full-back Jordan Goddard involved heavily, and his cross found Sam McDermaid who saw his shot blocked by Pele Hagger.

With 20 minutes left, Woodley fell further behind when a Nathanael Robinson free-kick found the right corner.

Substitute Reece Brown nearly made an immediate impact when a fantastic ball from the left was cleared by a defender who got up well, the ball eventually falling to Guze who could not test Griffiths. The Milton keeper was having a quiet afternoon, but was called into action with five minutes to go easily dealing with another Guze shot.

Milton put gloss on the scoreline with two late strikes allowing Robertson to complete his hat-trick.

After pulling off a good stop to keep out a Goddard shot, Moore was left rooted to the spot as a 25-yard drive beat him.

Then, in injury-time, Robertson took advantage of a counter-attack to fire a crisp strike into the corner.

Guze and Parton-Edey gave Woodley a 2-0 lead in their Berks & Bucks Senior Trophy home game with Holyport on Monday, but the visitors came back to win 4-2 thanks to a Jonny Feaver brace and goals from Chris De Franco and Matthew Ensby.

AFC Aldermaston were knocked out of the Berks & Bucks Senior Trophy after they went down 4-1 on penalties at home to Milton United, the two sides having drawn 1-1 in normal time.

Henry Bone gave the visitors a first-half lead, only for Michael Porter to level for the Atom Men on 75 minutes.

However, they failed to hold their nerve in the shoot-out and went down 4-1.

ldermaston visit Woodley United in the league this coming Saturday (3pm), before travelling to Burnham next Tuesday evening (7.45pm).

Reading City will look for a sixth win in seven games when they host Ardley United in the Premier Division on Monday (7.45pm).

  • WOODLEY United Ladies got their Southern Region Premier Division season off to a winning start with a 3-2 win at New Milton.

The visitors started brightly and took a 13th-minute lead when Sarah Thompson – who had come on as a third-minute substitute for Sophie Measham – crashed her shot from outside the area in off the underside of the crossbar.

Jodie Penny extended the lead midway through the half when she converted good play involving both Rosie Page-Smith and Natasha Master.

New Milton reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Woodley’s defence failed to track Rebecca Ingram whose shot from the edge of the box eluded Nicole Haines into the keeper’s top right hand corner.

United started the second half brightly and saw Penny hit the crossbar before Town levelled on the counter-attack through Caitlin Steele, 10 minutes after the restart.

However, Page-Smith proved the match-winner as she won a penalty which she converted in the 63rd minute for the all-important winning goal.

In the Thames Valley Counties League, Barton Royals started their Division Two South campaign against local rivals Thatcham Flames with a 1-0 victory, Caitlin Levy the goalscorer.