Simon Johnson’s Cityzens arrived at our home, away from home, The Invesco Perpetual Triangle still wounded from Tuesday night’s disheartening Emirates FA Cup exits.

However with a decent-size crowd gathering on the banks of the River Thames on a sunny summer’s evening you’d be mistaken for thinking we hadn’t swapped Scours Lane for South Oxfordshire as it felt like home.

Buoyed on by the crowd, City had a good start to the game. With quarter-of-an-hour played the Cityzens gave our former shot-stopper Eddie Cavanagh in between the sticks for our visitors a scare after a long-ball over the top of the Abingdon defence caused havoc. Ewan Lynch manages one touch and then a second. With Cavanagh in no-man’s land, the defender falls to the ground giving Lynch the perfect opportunity to score but it narrowly goes wide.

City didn’t stop there and Simon Johnson’s side were very much on top, launching attack after attack. With twenty-five minutes on the clock the pressure paid off as Joel Valentin shot from range only to see Abingdon’s shot-stopper Cavanagh parry it, allowing Mckoy Palmer to tuck home the rebound and give us the opening goal of the game.

City continued to be rampant in attack and as we approached the half hour mark, Cavanagh was again forced to make a good save from close range after a creative shot from the floor.

With thirty-seven minutes played, Team Captain Josh Baines has a go with a strike from about twenty yards out, only to see his shot roll across the turf to the left of Cavanagh’s left-hand post.

With forty-two minutes played Abingdon United had started to grow in confidence towards the end of this half and Liam Burt had their best opportunity so far, having got in on the angle he fired towards goal only for Charlie York to make a good save.

Half Time: Reading City 1 v Abingdon United 0 

Simon Johnson’s Cityzens would be happy with that first forty-minutes having dominated possession and had multiple chances.

Abingdon United got the second half underway and started brightly.

With forty-nine minutes on the clock, they came knocking on the door looking for an equaliser as Burt used his strength to square the ball for Harry Walters, who fortunately for us missed the opportunity to tap in at the back post.

As we approached the hour mark, Abingdon United found their equaliser after a dangerous free-kick from Josh Jones found Harry Walters who nodded it home with a diving header. 

With sixty-six minutes played Eddie Lazarczuk rifled a city free-kick goalbound, from a couple of yards outside the box. Sadly it deflected and even more frustratingly even took a final touch off a blue shirt before heading out of play.

With just over 20 minutes left, Simon Johnson made his first change replacing Max Laschok with Bobbi Emery to freshen up his attacking options.

As the clock hit seventy minutes, Abingdon United took the lead for the first time as Josh Jones once again delivered a dangerous ball, which found George Gilmore who flicked it on for Casey Highmoor to poke home at the back post.

In their first change of the game, Casey Highmoor was swapped for Jack Gaul with seventy-two minutes played.

A second substitution for Abingdon shortly followed as with seventy-five minutes played Ellis Walker was replaced with Jack Badger.

With Abingdon now in the lead they appeared to have gone up a gear and were beginning to cause City problems, with just twelve minutes of normal time remaining Harry Walters went close again for our visitors having got a cross across the face of goal.

With nine minutes of normal time remaining Simon Johnson would call upon his bench in the hope they could unlock the winning formula and therefore made three changes with Ewan Lynch, Pele Hagger and Lamin Sankoh making way for Luke Donville, Will Shaw and Ben Hutchings.

Luke Donville making his first appearance of the season having returned from injury in pre-season.

With eighty-seven minutes played Abingdon made their third substitution with Harry Walters making way for Aaron Woodley.

In the ninetieth minute, Joel Valentin a player who has previously reached Wembley in the FA Vase with Binfield kept our chances of doing the same alive with a well-deserved goal to draw us level. After the ball kindly dropped he made no mistake of driving it towards goal.

Luke Donville marked his return from injury in dramatic fashion, as with ninety-five minutes on the clock the City youngster was cool and composed to slot home the winner.

With the game all but over, Abingdon made one final change with ninety-six minutes on the clock as Zach Morey made way for John Mills in their fourth substitution.

Full Time: Reading City 3 v Abingdon United 2

A historical night for the Cityzens as not only did Simon Johnson reveal after the game it’s the first time in his five year tenure that we’ve won a game in the ninety fifth minute, we can now say we’ve finally beaten Abingdon United in the FA Vase at the third time of asking.

We’ll now take a trip down memory lane to face old friends Fairford Town who we regularly played during our time in the Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division.  The Second Round Qualifying Clash will see us head to Gloucestershire on Saturday 21 September, with a 15:00 kick off.