Rye & Sidley meet at Ringmer

In-form Rye United midfielder Olly Lockyer holds off his marker during their 2-1 win in the reverse fixture at Sidley on Easter Monday. Picture by Simon Newstead

Although Rye’s home fixture, The Salts is now in the hands of Rye Cricket Club for the summer so the Sussex County Football League Division One derby will take place more than 40 miles from the Quarterboys’ base.

A third successive top three finish remains a possibility for Rye, but they need to win their last two games and hope that East Preston pick up four points or less from their last three. Currently 15th, Sidley could finish anywhere between 12th and 18th.

Sidley would appear to have an advantage in the sense that they’ve had a whole week’s rest, whereas Rye have continued their late season fixture pile-up with games on Saturday and Tuesday.

But the crazy schedule doesn’t seem to have had an adverse affect on Rye because they’ve lost only one of their 17 games under joint managers Marc Gall and Anthony Storey, and crushed Hailsham Town 6-2 on Tuesday night after scoring five times during a scintillating first half performance.

That run included a 2-1 victory in Easter Monday’s reverse fixture when Rye scored twice in the opening 20 minutes and looked on course for a comfortable morning before a below strength Sidley team produced a spirited performance to almost salvage a point.

Rye, incidentally, are the division’s second highest scorers behind champions-elect Peacehaven & Telscombe with a remarkable 110 league goals from 40 matches. Kick-off tonight is 7.30pm and you can get updates by following @SimonNewstead on Twitter.