Reading YMCA started the new season with a daunting trip to champions Westwood Utd and had to mount a stirring comeback to get a share of the spoils.

The Young Men have actually got an impressive record against their local rivals winning 8 of the last 9 meetings between the sides.  But this counted for nothing as Westwood showed they were determined to get their title defence off to a good start by mounting an early onslaught on the YM goal.

With a strong wind in their favour Westwood were not letting YM settle and they took a deserved lead when Ashley Baynham chased a long ball before cutting inside and delivering a crisp, low shot passed YM keeper Scott Mortimer.

YM barely had time to catch their breath before Westwood went 2-0 when, after YM failed to clear a corner, Michael Gibson scrambled the ball in.

YM finally woke up and enjoyed some good attacking moments of their own with debutants Nick Seymour and Martin Abery providing the most obvious threat.  And they managed to pull a goal back when a mis-hit Andy Bullett free kick was flicked on by Abery passed new Westwood keeper Keiron Lamb.

The rest of the half was more even with the midfield trio of Bullett, Drew Tipper and Nader Edmunds gradually getting to grip with their opposite numbers.  But Westwood always looked the bigger threat and Baynham twice had gilt edged chances to put his side in front.

YM also had keeper Mortimer to thank for a couple of outstanding saves that kept his side in the game.

YM were relieved to go in just 1 goal in arrears and, with the conditions in their favour in the 2nd half, were confident of getting something from the game.

As expected, YM had the better of the 2nd half with Tipper and Edmunds both prominent whilst Abery’s non-stop running forced the Westwood defence into desperate measures at times.

After a couple of near misses, Abery then raced on to a headed clearance from another debutant Scott Allen where he calmly slotted passed Lamb.

Both sides had spells of pressure in the closing stages without ever creating anything a clear cut and the final score of 2-2 was probably a fair reflection of the game.

YM manager Mark Lemm said “It was a bit of a scrappy game played in difficult conditions and I think a draw was a fair result overall.

Westwood had the conditions in their favour during the 1st half and were the better side and vice versa in the 2nd half.  After having played pretty well during pre-season I was a little disappointed with the way we played but taking into account we were 2-0 down I have to be satisfied with a point.

We fielded 4 new players as well and there is still some fine tuning to be done in terms of the balance of the side and the understanding but we have to learn fast as we have Woodley next and I’m expecting them to be title contenders this year.

I definitely think the league need to review starting the season in midweek though.  You spend all summer working towards the first game of the season and on the day you have about 15mins to prepare by the time the players have finished work and then the light is pretty bad by the time you get to the 60mins mark.  I’ll be annoyed if it gets to March and we have no games yet after cramming them in early on.”

READING YMCA: MORTIMER, FITZPATRICK, ALLEN, ROLFE, CORNELL, EDMUNDS, BULLETT (replaced by SIDWELL 65mins), D TIPPER (replaced by KEARSEY 90mins), ADEY (replaced by JENNINGS 70mins), ABERY, SEYMOUR SUBS SIDWELL, JENNINGS, KEARSEY.