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Reading YMCA cruised through to the semi-final of the Maidenhead Norfolkian Cup but the the scoreline does not tell the story of a game that could have seen Laurencians out of sight in the first 20 minutes.
YM welcomed back club captain Danny Fitzpatrick after a 5 game absence through injury and he came straight into the side to replace injured player-manager Mark Lemm.
In horrible conditions and on a tight pitch a scrappy battle was anticipated but Laurencians looked sharp in the opening exchanges and almost took the lead only to be denied by the woodwork. The home side then spurned a one-on-one after a Fitzpatrick error and then hit the woodwork again with the YM defence all at sea.
Totally against the run of play, YM took the lead when a Sam Jennings shot was parried by the keeper into the path of on-fire striker Johnny Adey who tapped in. YM quickly doubled their lead when James Atkinson found Jennings who turned and bore down on goal before drilling a left foot shot past the keeper.
Laurencians continued to look threatening though and pulled a goal back after YM failed to clear a free-kick. But the one aspect of YM's play that was functioning was their finishing and Jennings responded with his 2nd of the match after a deft pass from David Payne and then Adey crossed for Drew Tipper who showed superb composure to bamboozle the home defence before clipping the ball into the net.
The half-time scoreline was extremely harsh on Laurencians but with the conditions in their favour in the 2nd half there was a sense that, even at 4-1, the game was not over. However, the 2nd half was relatively comfortable and YM looked the likelier team to score despite Laurencians pushing hard.
Both teams had good chances to add to their tallies in the final minutes but the game remained at 4-1 leaving YM to host Eton Wick in the semi-final in March.
LEMMY'S MOM: CHRIS LEMM |
