A crowd of over 200 people, including many familiar faces came out to The Salts on Saturday as football finally returned to Rye after two-and-a-half years to watch Rye Town FC defeat JC Tackleway 4: 2 in their first home game of the season.
Rye dominated possession in the first half but still could not score despite coming close when Frank Walker and Ben Heffernan both had efforts cleared off the line and also a header that went just wide of the post.
Rye goalkeeper Shane Ridgers made a good save diving to his left to keep the scores level at the break. Rye finally got the breakthrough 10 minutes after the break when Rob Levett’s effort was parried by the goalkeeper to Weller who tapped home the loose ball 1-0 to Rye.
As the rain began to fall this reporter decided cover wasn’t necessary although the club house and the covered stand in the corner of the ground became very popular. Rye made it 2-0 on the 70th minute when a free kick was only half cleared and the ball was delivered back into the area, Frank Walker headed into the corner of the net. Soon after Rye hit their third when Charlie Stevens popped up with a near post header after a good delivery into the box from Heffernan.
A mistake in the Rye defence gave Tackleway some hope of a comeback with 10 minutes of normal time remaining before Sammy Foulkes made it 4-1 to Rye with a nicely driven free kick from 25 yards which nestled in the bottom corner of the net. Seconds later Tackleway pulled another goal back following a further piece of sloppiness at the back .
The game ended 4-2 with Rye still unbeaten after three league games. They now head into cup action high on confidence as they face Hollington United this Saturday (September 24) at the Salts in the East Sussex Football League Presidents Cup kick off at 2:30pm.
Rye: Ridgers, Walker, Wilson, Willis, Ball (Wall), Foulkes, Henham, Levett, Heffernan (Gould), Weller, (Wallbank) Stevens
Photos: Charmaine Ridgers