Westwood Utd's title hopes were dealt a blow by an in-form Reading YMCA side who are now unbeaten in their last 5 games.

Westwood went into the game without influential wide man James Dowling and suffered further disruption when Steve Green was forced to withdraw to the bench after aggravating an injury during the warm up.  Reading YMCA were forced to make 1 change from the side that beat Woodley Town the previous week with Sam Jennings coming in for the absent David Rolfe.

YM are something of a bogey team for Westwood with the Young Men winning 7 of the previous 8 encounters but there was nothing to choose between the sides in the opening exchanges with the hard, bouncy surface making it difficult for either side to find any fluency.  The first chance of the match fell to YM when Andrew Heath embarked on a teasing run before floating a cross to the backpost where striker Dan Newman was lurking only to head over the bar from close range.

Westwood then had a good spell and Ashley Baynham's long shot forced YM keeper Scott Mortimer to make a superb fingertip save.  A goalmouth scramble in the YM box saw Drew Tipper twice flinging his body in the way of shots as Westwood enjoyed their best spell of the match.

But YM weathered the storm and began to take control of the match with the impressive Tim Zielinski proving to be a rock at the back and Darren Cornell also working tirelessly to snuff out the threat of Sam Tucker.
Neither side were asking too many questions of the opposition goalkeeper until YM managed to find the breakthrough on the half hour.  YM's Sam Jennings chested the ball down and played a neat ball to strike partner Newman who beat a player before squaring back to Jennings who just managed to scramble the ball passed keeper Neil Graham from 5 yards.

The second half continued to be a tight affair with YM maintaining their slight edge and Newman should have done better when played clean through on goal only to screw his shot wide of the post albeit from a difficult angle.
YM slowly began to increase the pressure with Tim Sidwell, Nader Edmunds and Tipper driving their team forward and eventually they forced a second goal.  Tipper showed invention with a lobbed pass over the static Westwood defence into the path of the galloping Zielinski who took the ball down before delivering an acrobatic volley over Graham and into the top corner.

It was just reward for an outstanding individual display by Zielinski.

The goal took the sting out of the game and YM looked to be coasting to victory until the ever willing Baynham picked up the ball on the edge of the area and hit an inch perfect volley over Mortimer and into the roof of the net.  With 10 minutes left, YM had visions of the two sides previous meeting when the Young Men were 2-0 up with 15 mins to go only to draw 2-2.
But this time Westwood were not really able to capitalise on the goal and create another opportunity to equalise.

The final minutes saw Westwood grow increasingly frustrated and striker Steve May was shown red for violent conduct.

Manager Mark Lemm said "I thought we were in control for most of the match without ever dominating and just about deserved the points.  It was what I call a good professional display - nothing spectacular but everybody working hard and doing their jobs well.

We're ticking over nicely at the moment but that can soon change and we face another tough challenge on Saturday against Woodcote/Stoke Row who I really rate and who will be scrapping for everything.

Westwood weren't at their best today but are still very much in the title hunt and they have enough attacking talent to hurt anyone."

READING YMCA: MORTIMER, FITZPATRICK, ZIELINSKI, CASSIDY, CORNELL, D TIPPER, SIDWELL, HEATH (replaced by KISLUK 75mins), EDMUNDS, JENNINGS (replaced by ILSLEY 65mins), NEWMAN SUBS ILSLEY, KISLUK, BULLETT (not used), M LEMM (not used).

LEMMY'S MOM - TIM ZIELINSKI

YM Skipper Tim Sidwell took last weeks mom award after finally showing some of the form he has come to be knowm for. A frustrating season for the rep man has been interspersed with injury amongst other things but a run of starts since the turn of the year has seen Sidwell get back to a decent level capped with a fine display against Woodley Town. With a potential cup final to come, maybe the best is yet to come from the Midfield man.