Reading YMCA are the new Senior Division champions after an emphatic 5-2 victory over Mortimer on Wednesday evening.  It is only the club's second top flight title in their 113 year history and their first since the 1960/61 season.

YM's ecstatic manager Mark Lemm said "We were in the wilderness of local league football for alot of years and it has been a long haul to get to this position but we have been knocking on the door in the last few seasons and finally everything came together this year."

YM looked to have blown their opportunity when they lost 3-1 to Theale/Royal Mail with just 3 games to go but bounced back with a hard fought 1-0 over title rivals Highmoor/IBIS last Saturday leaving them needing 1 point from the Mortimer game.

Lemm continued "We were rock bottom after the Theale/Royal Mail because that was a golden opportunity to get one hand on the trophy and we just didn't turn up.  But we haven't had back-to-back defeats all season so when we do get beat we make sure we come back hard in the next game and we showed great spirit to edge out Highmoor/IBIS 1-0 even though we had a host of players missing."

And YM made no mistake in wrapping up the title with a clinical display against a Mortimer side who had nothing to play for but were still a dangerous attacking force.  YM flew out of the blocks and opened the scoring on 10 minutes when Adam Cayzer headed home a Jamie Froude corner.  The lead was then doubled when Sam Jennings picked up the ball on the edge of the box and squared for Drew Tipper to lash home a thunderbolt that was too hot to handle for keeper John Bates.

It looked like Mortimer were going to be on the end of a hiding when YM went 3-0 up after a Martin Abery shot was parried by Bates into the path of Jennings who tapped into the empty net.  There was controversy at the end of the half when YM looked to have made it 4-0 when Jennings rounded the keeper and squared for Abery to slot home but the goal was ruled out for offside even though the ball seemed to have gone backwards.

However the incident seemed unlikely to have any bearing on the outcome, that was until Mortimer staged a dramatic fightback to set YM's nerves jangling.  Within 2 minutes of the re-start, Mortimer broke well from a YM corner and the build up ended with striker Dan Dudman through on goal where he made no mistake with slotting past helpless keeper Scott Hodgetts.

YM continued in control of the game but received a shock when James Weston made it 3-2 in identical fashion after a swift counter-attack.  When YM centre back Ben Green's underhit backpass had to be scrambled away by Hodgetts it looked like YM might crack with 20 minutes still to go but as Mortimer smelt blood they left gaps at the back and YM's Rob Lee settled nerves when he picked up a poor clearance to sidefoot the ball past stand-in keeper Justin Plank with the assistance of a bobble.

The goal relaxed YM again and they could have had another 2 or 3 goals before Man of the Match Maertin Abery deservedly wrapped up the scoring when he pounced on a saved Lee shot to fire into the roof of the net to clinch their first top flight title in nearly 50 years.

Lemm summarised "Up until Xmas we were excellent and the only game we deserved to lose in either league or cup was Sandhurst away.  After Xmas we picked up alot of injuries and there were alot of players away at various times and, as a consequence, we were far more inconsistent and really had to dig in and battle for the points in alot of games.

I'm so pleased for the players because they are a great group to manage both on and off the pitch.  There aren't any superstars at YM and everyone has to buy into the team ethic and its that team spirit and togtherness that has got us through this season because there have been plenty of bad days as well as alot of good.

I am especially pleased for Drew Tipper, Danny Fitzpatrick and Chris Lemm who have been with me since I took over as manager 4 years ago and stuck with the club when we were struggling at the bottom of the table every season.  I am also gutted for Johnny Adey and Naz Edmunds who have made huge contributions to our success this year but injury prevented both from taking any part in the title run in.

We'll enjoy this for a couple of weeks but I'm hungry to defend the trophy next year and, as always, will be looking to improve the squad over the summer and continue to make us stronger as a club."


READING YMCA:HODGETTS, FROUDE, GREEN, FITZPATRICK, LEE, ABERY, CAYZER, MCGIVERN, D TIPPER (replaced by WAGNER 65mins), C LEMM (replaced by BICKNELL 70mins), JENNINGS (replaced by WHITE 80mins) SUBSWAGNER, BICKNELL, WHITE, ATKINSON (not used).

LEMMY'S MOM - MARTIN ABERY