Rapids keeper Ian Harvey turned out to be the hero of the day with a string of amazing stops including 3 penalty saves. Sat 10th May saw the inaugral YMCA fixture between the clubs 2 teams and it was the rapids that came out on penalties in a hotly disputed contest. Referee Piere Luigi Lemm was called in to action on numerous occasions including what could have been seen as the turning point. Rapids defender Tim Zielinski appeared to be cruelly hacked down on the half way line but referee Lemm adjudged tough tackling midfielder Adey Kearsey won the ball. Andy Bullett then picked up the ball and fed the YM strikeforce of Dan Newman and Sam Jennings who made no mistake.
The game had started at a leisurely pace and it wasn't until skipper Sidwell, vice captain Rolfe and front man Tipper put down their beers that the game really came to life. The 1st team surged forward on numerous occasions and it looked like a case of how many, but Rapids player of the year Ryan Tipper had other ideas, dispelling everything in his path until he was forced off after 20 mins with a tiredness related injury and a pulled ego. The Rapids started to come back in to the game with Rob Maslen and Dan Sutton pouncing on some characteristic YM defensive errors, but they couldn't find a way through the YM rear guard mainly due to the fact that they couldn't kick it in the direction of the goal past the bloke stood in it. Then the hammer blow came and YM went 1-0 to the good.
The second half started at a frenetic pace with the reintroduction of Ryan Tipper who bolstered the rapids midfiled with some intruiging lunges and occasional wheezing. It was during this period that the rapids hit back with a fine strike from Lee Worth (I think) who hammered one home across the dispairing lunge from Scott Mortimer. YM then restored their advantage with some great individual work from Bullett who fed someone else who then scored. But the rapids weren't finished yet. Someone else scored and the game was destined for penalties.
Rapids keeper Harvey took centre stage flinging himself this way and that as if having a fit. Then the penalities started and it was YM who were first to miss. Harvey diving beautifully to his left to deny Drew Tipper. The rapids then also missed when someone did something silly and it didn't go in. Harvey then picked himself up and welted the ball miles as he did before every YM penalty - some sort of ritual and produced another stunning save to keep the scores at 0-0. Someone like Dan Sutton then scored to make it 1-0 and what was to happen next will go down in YM folklore. Penalty machine Sidwell stepped up to calmly slot home another as per usual but with the ball rocketing towards the top left hand corner of the net, Harvey did a Ryan Tipper and came from nowhere to get fingertips and touch it on the post. The goal shook. Everyone stopped and stared as the ball trickled back towards the stunned Sidwell and the Rapids players and fans errupted. Sidwell was left in a crumpled heap next to his beer as it was his first penalty miss since the last one. Zielinski then had a chance to seal it - he stepped up and calmly slotted the ball over the bar just as everyone thought he would. YM were back in it. Drew Tipper pulled one back and it was game on. The Rapids went 2-1 up and it was left to YM Madejski penalty hero Danny Fitzpatrick to draw the teams level. Surely he'd score. He must score. He has to score..........................he didn;t score and the Rapids took the honours.
A great day all round for YMCA and was capped off by a fine presentation display from Lemm who only went over his 15 min speech target, by 45 mins.
See you next season
Sidders
