Mortimer continued their recent upturn in form by holding visitors Reading YMCA to a 1-1 draw on Saturday and the villagers are now just 3 away from climbing out of the drop zone for the first time this season.
YM have also been in good form in recent weeks, winning their previous 5 games, but found it difficult to breakdown a disciplined Mortimer rearguard.

YM started the game brightly and were pinning Mortimer back in their own half with Sam Cripps and Chris Lemm both looking lively in attack.  On 20 mins a neat YM move saw Nader Edmunds feed the ball to top scorer Martin Abery who hit a snap shot past keeper John Bates to open the scoring.

Bit the goal seemed to encourage YM to take their foot off the gas and Mortimer came right back in the game with the industry of Laurence Holmes and trickery of Manos Skantos causing problems.  Mortimer almost equalized on 35 minutes when a poorly cleared corner fell to Peter Southcotte who hit a superb first time volley towards the top corner but YM keeper Scott Mortimer made an unbelievable save to tip the ball over the bar.

The second half was a turgid affair with both sides working hard but lacking quality in the final third.  Mortimer sensed there was a good opportunity to get back into the game and they duly did so when they played a quick short corner and, although YM raced to close down the cross, the ball squirmed to Southcotte who placed the ball into the corner despite the best efforts of keeper Mortimer.

The goal stunned the visitors but they came back strongly when Sam Jennings twice broke free of the Mortimer defence to home in on goal but on both occasions his shot sailed over the bar.  YM were becoming more and more frustrated as they were largely restricted to long range efforts whilst Mortimer slowly dried up as an attacking force as the half wore on.
It was only when Darren Cornell came on for the final 20 minutes that YM began to show some real attacking thrust and again they pinned Mortimer back into their own half.  Abery had a sharp chance when the ball rebounded off Bates and there was also a goalmouth scramble when Bates fumbled a shot but YM failed to create the clear cut chance they needed to win the game.

YM boss Mark Lemm said "Both sides put alot of effort in today but although we had the better of the chances we got a bit impatient and it just didn't happen for us.
It was a bad time to play Mortimer as they have been improving over recent weeks and I thought they looked a solid outfit today and deserved their point.
We're really disappointed as it feels like a missed opportunity to get in amongst the group of teams chasing Woodley but we've been on a good run so we need to forget about this one and look to get back to winning ways next week."

YM Rapids huffed and puffed to a 3-0 win at Burghfield on saturday. Another strong Rapids squad turned up expecting to gain all 3 points but also knowing it was going to be no walkover. YM's 2nd string are usualy no strangers to scoring goals but for a large part of this match it looked like it might be 'one of those days'.

Strike partners Steve Woodrow and Dave Morrison were the first to be found guilty of missing chances with both blazing over when in good positions. Wide man Steve Wood was then put through by Sidwell and flash a vicious shot just over the bar with the keeper beaten. Ryan Tipper then had a long range attempt well saved before Dean Williams and Morrison combined down the right to setup Woodrow who, again, was found wanting. Sidwell then burst in to the box but could only screw his shot wide before Williams wasted the best chance of the half with just the keeper to beat.

The 2nd half continued in the same vein with all 10 outfield players guilty of missing chances at some point. The breakthrough finally came from an unlikely source. The Corinthians keeper, who was playinga blinder, dropped a routine cross at the feet of Williams who prodded the ball home. The Rapids players went wild and, though well deserved, seemed a touch harsh on the home side. Dave Morrison then rediscovered his scoring touch and rounded the keeper to slot home. Sub Dan Sutton then came on to make it 3 from a Sidwell corner.

Special mention must go to Corinthians centre half Ross Mcmillan who was outstanding all afternoon with some great play and massive tackling to deny the Rapids.

Manager Paul O Boyle - "It looked like it was going to be one of those days as we missed chance after chance without AFC really troubling our keeper Rob Taylor."

READING YMCA RAPIDS: TAYLOR, WOOD, ILSLEY, ZIELINSKI, LEACH, WILLIAMS, R TIPPER (replaced by SUTTON 70mins), SIDWELL, EVANS, WOODROW, D MORRISON (replaced by MASLEN 80mins) SUBS SUTTON, MASLEN.

BOILER'S MOM - TIM ZIELINSKI