Rye go 11 points clear ahead of crunch title clash

Rye Town Football Club extended its lead at the top of the table to 11 points with a single-goal victory on Saturday.
Rob Wilson was Rye Town's man of the match against The JC Tackleway.Rob Wilson was Rye Town's man of the match against The JC Tackleway.
Rob Wilson was Rye Town's man of the match against The JC Tackleway.

A first half strike from Chris Gould was enough for Rye to edge out The JC Tackleway and make it 12 wins from 14 Macron East Sussex Football League Division One matches.

Second-placed Crowhurst now have two games in hand on Rye after their fixture was postponed, while third-placed Bexhill Town won 4-3 away to Herstmonceux to remain 14 points behind Rye having played five fewer matches.

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Rye will travel to Bexhill this coming Saturday in a game which could have a big say in the destination of the league title. Kick-off at Bexhill Road is 2pm.

With Tackleway’s pitch unfit, last weekend’s game was switched to Rye on Saturday morning and the surface at The Salts held up quite well.

Rye were missing around half-a-dozen regular players so manager Shane Ridgers put himself in goal and his good friend Marc Gall took over the managerial reins for the day.

Rye started quite well and George Ball had a decent header well saved before the all-important goal arrived in the 17th minute.

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Ridgers started a flowing move from back to front which ended with Joe Fraser playing a lovely ball to Charlie Stevens, who lobbed it up to the back post for Gould to knock home with his less favoured right foot.

Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.
Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.

Tackleway began to play quite well, though, and Rye needed a good save from Ridgers to his right at the end of Tackleway’s first meaningful attack to preserve his team’s lead.

Ollie Skinner had a couple of half-chances for Rye, who had a goal disallowed when Adam Hurley turned in a Stevens corner with his hand.

On the stroke of half time, Ridgers made a reaction stop with his wonky left knee from a one-on-one situation, diverting the ball against the post.

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There weren’t many chances at either end during a scoreless second period, although Rye had the better of the exchanges and Ridgers wasn’t really forced into any saves.

Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.
Chris Gould scored the only goal in Rye's 1-0 victory.

The low sun made life difficult for Rye after the break, but they defended well to keep a third consecutive clean sheet and fourth in their last five games.

Barnaby Osborne did a fantastic job in front of the back three until going off injured and Stevens was a menace up-front, but Rob Wilson was the Pikes Cleaning man of the match for a Rye side which gave a debut to young Fraser Kipps as a substitute.

The match sponsor was Rye Harbour cafe, Bosun’s Bite.

Ridgers said: “Everyone put a shift in and although on paper it doesn’t look convincing, we were more happy with a 1-0 win than we were after some of the other games where we’ve won by a few more.”

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Rye: Ridgers; Wilson, Cruttenden, Willis; Ball (Walker), Osborne (Earl), Skinner, Hurley, Fraser (Kipps); Gould, Stevens.

Adam Hurley is set to miss tomorrow’s game through work, but the likes of Sammy Foulkes, Ben Heffernan, Sam Henham and Richard ‘Alfie’ Weller are expected to return.

Rye need eight points, incidentally, from their last four games to secure one of the two promotion places.

See our comprehensive sports coverage in the Observer every Friday.

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