.......as Woodcote appeared strangely subdued in this match leaving United to enjoy a relatively comfortable afternoon that saw an end to their recent run of defeats.

The afternoon however belonged to Reading YMCA who travelled to Cintra Park and returned with a solid 4-0 win over Unity that confirmed YM as champions for the second consecutive season.

United’s best hope now is to realise runners-up spot for consecutive seasons and the three points gained yesterday will go a long way to confirming that. With two home games remaining 3 points should be enough to secure second position. “If you’re first you’re first, if you’re second you’re nothing” may be a truism but it’s still better than finishing third!

Yesterday’s game saw another impressive performance from the skipper Ollie Flint who has moved from midfield to central defence in recent games due to injuries but popped up yesterday in attack and led the line well with 2 well taken goals. Further consistent performances from both James Hardie and Ryan Britnell at the back compounded Woodcote’s misery while Qwam Thomas followed up recent good performances with another good display yesterday in a game billed as ‘match of the day’.

United v Woodcote is usually a top class exciting affair but not so yesterday although it may well be that the season for Woodcote has extinguished, if not, it has now. Nevertheless, the game was played in the right spirit and ended well for United at least.

Around the league Cookham Dean saw off Woodley United TVPL 2-0 while Highmoor held Mortimer at home 1-1. As mentioned previously Unity went down 0-4 to Reading YMCA.

Next visitors to Gossmore Lane are the champions Reading YMCA on Wednesday evening KO 6pm.

One must applaud the champions who are still as yet unbeaten in the league which in itself is an incredible achievement. YMCA are an unassuming club and very little, if any rhetoric is generated from them as they go about their business efficiently and effectively, humble in defeat and humble in victory is a lesson a lot of teams could learn from them. Should United provide a guard of honour Wednesday evening it will be very much deserved.

Following Wednesday evening’s game United will wrap their season up with the visit of Mortimer to Gossmore Lane next Saturday KO 2pm.