League title back in Rye’s hands

That’s the opinion of manager Scott Price, pictured, as the leaders head into the final 13 matches of their Division One programme.

Price said: “It’s ours to lose now which a month ago it wasn’t. We’ve still got to play Three Bridges, we’ve still got to play Pagham, but they will be saying exactly the same. I still think it’s between us three.”

After the disappointment of New Year’s Eve when Rye were unluckily beaten 2-1 at Hassocks, 2012 couldn’t have started any better for the Quarterboys.

While Rye were winning 1-0 at home to Peacehaven & Telscombe and scoring their 100th goal of the season in the process, Pagham lost 3-0 at home to Arundel and Bridges drew 2-2 away to Hassocks.

It means that Rye are four points clear of second-placed Pagham having played two more matches and 12 ahead of a fifth-placed Bridges side which has five games in hand.

“It was spot on for us really and it’s shaping up quite well,” continued Price. “We’ve just got to keep winning, but we’ve got some tough games coming up.”

The first of them is a trip to Lingfield tomorrow (Saturday). Although probably not as strong as they were when drawing 2-2 in September’s reverse fixture with ex-professionals Nicky Forster and Ian Pearce in their line-up, Lingfield are still in the top six and are only six points off third.

Price says Lingfield is never an easy place to go and is preparing for a barrage of long throws from the Surrey outfit. The three meetings between the clubs in 2011, incidentally, all finished in draws.

See today’s Rye Observer for the full article.