The Young Men’s long awaited return to Scours Lane proved to be a fruitful one after an emphatic and dominate destruction of Senior division rivals Cookham Dean. YM produced one of their worst displays of the season away at Cookham but there was no trace of those bad memories or, indeed, of other recent poor performances.

The game commenced with YM looking the livelier of the two sides as they continuously harassed Cookham off the ball and stroked the ball around with
freedom. As the game settled into shape after the first 10 minutes it became clear that YM were absorbing all Cookham could throw at them with ease but Cookham were surprisingly static at the back and YM were calving them open at will.

It wasn’t long before the pace of Martin Abery and Leon Mannion began to exploit the space behind Cookham’s highline. The YM breakthrough came after 20 minutes when Abery intercepted a pass and outpaced the Cookham defence leaving him one on one with the keeper. Abery made no mistake as he rounded the keeper and coolly slotted into the net. Cookham were incensed by the ease of the goal but it gave YM great confidence and the young men’s lead was doubled shortly afterwards as midfield dynamo, Naz Edmunds, played in Sam Jennings who made himself a yard before drilling a well placed shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

YM continued to dominate the half with Drew Tipper regularly commanding possession and exercising his full range of passing in the centre of
the park. If the ball was lost it was quickly won back by YM’s hard working midfield or the towering presence of Mark Lemm in the YM back four. Ex Cookham man and skipper, Scott Allen  also showed great composure on numerous occasions when he was put under pressure by Cookham’s frontmen  and retained important possession for YM by passing the ball out of defence.

YM continued to create chances from wide areas firstly Abery burst through, rounded the Cookham keeper but superbly the keeper managed to smother the ball at Abery’s feet. An almost identical chance was gifted to Mannion after a nicely weighted pass from Tipper split Cookham wide open. Mannion this time found himself one on one but with a square ball beckoning Mannion chose to go alone and once again the keeper
acrobatically poached the ball from his feet.  Abery had a goal disallowed for offside and another opportunity cleared off the line. The score remained 2-0 however it could easily have been 4 or 5 and YM began to ponder whether they would be made to pay for their wastefulness. It was during this period that Cookham had their best chance of the half when , following a partial clearance from a corner, a Cookham defender hit a half volley on the spin which required a fine full length stretch from Jamie Froude to turn it around the post.

However YM went into half time in the ascendancy but watchful that 2-0 is a precarious scoreline to lead by.

Cookham started the second half with more attacking intent and won a series of corners. Following one such corner there was a prolonged goal mouth scramble but somehow the ball rebound fortunately for YM after a number of Cookham strikes and they were able to clear. Later an on rushing Cookham midfielder got a yard on YM midfielder, Chris Lemm, and met a teasing cross with his head in the six yard box, fortunately for YM he could not control the header and it went over the bar.  Cookham’s desire for a comeback only sought to heighten YM’S lust for goals as the cracks began to appear in Cookhams ramshackle rearguard. Mannion, who had been caught offside several times previousy, managed to stay onside and latch
onto a through ball from Edmunds. Mannion found himself running down the centre of the Cookham half unopposed and was able to beautifully chip over the on rushing keeper to make it 3-0 and settle any doubts as to the outcome of the fixture.

YM continued to play with great desire and solidity despite their 3-0 advantage while Cookham were fighting amongst themselves. Good work from Abery again down the left led to him being fouled 20 yards out on the corner of the Cookham box. Mercurial midfielder Tipper strode up and tucked the resulting free kick into the top corner with lovely precision and as he wheeled away in celebration the rest of the ground stood in silence not sure what to make of the effort.

YM would have been delighted with 4-0 but Abery had another contribution to make. He was threaded through by the impressive Jennings and from an improbably tight angle he drove a toe poke into the far corner and completed the rout.

 
LEMMY'S MOM - CHRIS LEMM

YM Rapids were undone by a goal in the final seconds of the game to lose 2-1 against Wokingham and Emmbrook on Saturday. Going in to the match, YM knew a win would take them within one point of the leaders, but also knew they would be out for revenge after a 5-2 spanking earlier in the season. Sidwell was missing three regulars but his squad has come good in recent weeks meaning he could still field a strong side as Sutton replaced Daly, Alan Ilsley getting a start up top and the Manager himself returning to the heart of the midfield.

The game got off to a frantic start and was being played at pace meaning no one really got a foothold on proceedings. It was Wokingham for settled first with a couple of half chances but nothing to trouble the in form Phillips. YM showed glimpses on the previous week with Sutton making headway down the right and Nangla causing all sorts of problems up front with his pace. The first talking point of the match came on 20 minutes when Jamie Clough appeared to be body checked but the referee waved play on and then pulled up the YM centre half for one too many words earning him a yellow card. There seemed to be a lack of composure across the YM side and this showed when the away side took the lead. A long throw was flicked on at the near post and the YMm defence stood static as a Wokingham player bundled the ball over the line to make it 1-0. This seemed to galvanised the Rapids who suddenly got going with Woodrow and Evans combining down the left to force a corner. Jamie Clough came closest to equalising when he rose like a salmon above everyone and somehow skewed his header wide from 5 yards. The Rapids were now rampant as Sidwell whipped in a dangerous corner and then produced a sublime piece of skill to beat the Wokingham full back and deliver a telling cross to the back post where Rolfe headed back across but YM could not covert.

If the first half seemed compelling the second wouldnt have looked out of place on MOTD. A brief pep talk and YM flew out the blocks with Mandeep Nangla working his socks off in the channels, earning YM a throw. Sidwell launched one in the box and Clough appeared to be elbowed in the face as the referee pointed to the spot. All hell broke loose next as Clough carried on his protests whilst being pushed in the face by a Wokingham centre half as the referee took his time to regain control. The resulting cards dictated the rest of the game as Clough got a red and the Wokingham player only a yellow, which appeared a strange decision as all players know what happens when you raise your hands. The resulting penalty still stood and Sidwell dispatched it for his 8th of the season. From here on in the game took an obvious path with Wokingham battering the YM goal and YM restricted to the occasional counter attack. Luckily YM had Mark Ilsley on the bench and the centre half came straight in to the action and, along with the back four Cornell and Woodrow, did more defending for 40 minutes than he had done all season. Sidwell was trying desperately to get YM forward, setting Nangla away down the channels and linking up with Alan Ilsley who were working their socks off but the ball kept coming back and YM were defending for their lives. The attacks were frequent but lacked serious quality and with 6 minutes left, Holloway came on to shore up the midfield and keep the point. 10 minutes later the game was still going and YM were questioning the timing whilst still defending resolutely. With the time up the referee gave a poor decision resulting in a free kick on the YM right and as if it were Man Utd themselves, the Wokingham player finally put a decent ball in the mix where the forward tapped home for the win. To make matters worse the referee then played another 2 minutes where YM nearly carved out a chance to equalise, but the game was lost.

Sidwell bemoaned '2 things did us today, firstly our indiscipline and secondly some questionable decisions by the referee. We seemed to play a 55 minute 2nd half and I thought we deserved at least a point for defending so well. 11 vs 11 would have been a very different story having just got back in to the game, but this is park football and we move on to another tough game next week'

YM RAPIDS: PHILLIPS, LEACH, CLOUGH, ROLFE, EVANS, SUTTON, SIDWELL, CORNELL, WOODROW, A ILSLEY, NANGLA. SUBS: M ILSLEY (Replaced Sutton 50), HOLLOWAY (Replaced Sidwell 85)

SIDDERS MOM: MANDEEP NANGLA