The temptation with relegation battles is to massage them into byzantine maths equations, but Tottenham Women’s scrap for survival was straightforward heading into Saturday; avoid defeat to bottom-of-the-table Reading, avoid relegation to the Championship.
And while simple has rarely been the word to describe Spurs this season - with their pernicious dance with relegation and a staggering four league wins from 20 this season - Vicky Jepson's side made simplicity their art on Saturday as Bethany England, Celin Bizet and Kit Graham helped Spurs stroll to WSL safety with a 4-1 victory over Reading.
It was a good thing too, given the ominous spectre of the club’s bumper double-header at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium culminating in parrotted despair after Spurs Men’s disappointing second-half capitulation to Brentford dashed Harry Kane’s fairy tale ending.
And while safety from WSL relegation might not feel like it qualifies for the fairy tale arena, the onus of injecting the season’s last outing at Spurs Stadium with an iota of revelry became the unspoken task assumed by Spurs Women in the hours leading up to kick-off.
Interim manager Jepson made four changes to her starting XI as she entrusted the side that drew 2-2 with Brighton at Spurs Stadium at the end of April to deliver, and so they did.
An opening zeal from the home side promptly penned Reading in their own half with early chances falling to Rosella Ayane and Bethany England while Drew Spence, Eveliina Summanen and Celin Bizet cut themselves constant threats.
But three goals in two matches at Spurs Stadium this season was always going to prove a finite statistic for England, and so it proved on the half-hour mark as Molly Bartrip's cross to the back post from a short corner found England and the Lioness' downward header beat keeper Grace Moloney.
Spurs' salvos would not dissipate there, with the admittedly small but loud home crowd geed up by the fervent display and an earlier haunting of a 1-0 lead lost to nothing. And so Spurs continued to flex their dominance, slipping seamlessly into a rhythm that Reading, bereft of ideas, failed to counter.
Spurs' second arrived shortly before the interval, a culmination of Reading's press crumbling under pressure and the deftness of England, who set up Eveliina Summanen with a clever touch football before the Finnish international teed up Bizet behind the Reading back line. Bizet fended off a Reading defender and, with a slick show of poise, slid a low-driven cross under Moloney's outstretched arms and into the back of the net.
The result was a dejected Reading at half-time, their hopes of top-flight salvation seemingly in tatters. And England, seemingly on a one-woman mission to atone for the men's earlier performance, accentuated the visitors' sense of suffering 15 minutes after the restart.
Feeding off an defensive error from Reading, the former Chelsea striker latched onto a back pass before cleverly rounding Moloney to find herself gifted with a wide-open net. Rather than side foot a simple pass into the net, England, anticipating the desperate body of a Reading defender, opted to curl the ball into the top right corner before peeling away casually in delight.
For those fans who take stock in messages, England seemed to be sending hers ahead of the summer's Women's World Cup as she claimed her tenth league goal in 11 appearances for Spurs, a final flourish before her inevitable crowning as Spurs' Player of the Season despite arriving at its midway point.
A fourth looked inevitable for Spurs as they continued to gleefully probe, spurred on by Reading's ostensible malaise and the crowd's audible hunger for more even as Jepson began to empty her bench. Bartrip fed substitute Kit Graham over the top of Reading's defence in the 75th minute and the 27-year-old, returning from a long-term injury, made no mistake in stroking home Spurs' fourth.
Reading's Justine Vanhaevermaet pulled one back for the visitors five minutes later, seeming to ignite something in the realm of a response from an otherwise comatose Reading sleepwalking towards the relegation cliff edge.
But the fightback proved futile and ultimately ephemeral. Spurs returned to their previous iteration, hellbent on finding a fifth with substitutes Mana Iwabuchi, Jessica Naz and Nikola Karczewska all coming close to swelling Spurs' tally as the crowd bayed for more.
