Thames Valley Premier League side Reading YMCA have announced the appointment of Glen Goudie as the club’s manager for the 2026/27 season.
If Goudie seems like a familiar face, he was most recently manager and then chairman of Wallingford & Crowmarsh and oversaw the clubs merger, but he is also one of YMCA’s most successful managers.
Goudie said via the YM website: “I had a great four-year period with the club. We won the league, the BTC Cup and the Berks & Bucks Intermediate Cup, and I later came back after a season away to help the reserve side finish third. The aim is to improve the squad, help the players develop both individually and collectively and simply to give the players the platform to perform to the best of their ability.”
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Chairman Mark Lemm said: “It is massive for us to have Glenn back for his second spell in charge of the club. During his first spell, Glenn won multiple trophies and set us up for a sustained period of success. Glenn has spent the last decade at Step 5 and Step 6, and we hope he can use all this experience to get us back to the top end of the table again. Most importantly, he has a bond with the club and will get the very best out of the squad.”
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YM are one of the Thames Valley Premier League’s most successful sides having won the title three seasons in a row between 2016 and 2019 – a record Westwood Wanderers equalled in the season just past.
The club had also one the title in 2013 and then finished second twice in a row before the hat-trick.
In recent seasons and post Covid, Reading YMCA club took a step back to regroup but have been back at the top-table since 2021 and finished third in 2023. Last season the club finished in 10th place having battled with serious vandalism to the pitch at The Cauldron ground in Padworth.
