I came back for a second week of Southern Combination Football League Division 2 entertainment, deciding this week to stay closer to home by watching the fifth placed side, Rustington FC play the side sat in seventh, Upper Beeding FC.

Rustington play their home games at Woodlands Recreation ground. Their record attendance there was 454 for a game with Littlehampton Town in 2006-7. The club won the SCFL Division 2 in 2024-25 with an unbeaten record, being the first club in 50 years to do so and in 2025-26 they came second. Ground restrictions meant that they weren’t able to claim promotion in 2025 which led to them testing out ground sharing alternatives before returning to their Rustington home base this season.

The ground benefits from a clubhouse and a range of seating outside with which to watch the game. There was a decent crowd today enjoying the sun and the football, which put the gate at 170.

Under the continued guidance of first-team manager Tom Barnes, the Blues are looking to build upon their previous campaign where they secured silverware by lifting the Division Two Cup. The side officially opened their competitive season in mid-August with an away fixture against Southwater FC. Key attacking options across the first-team squad, include dangerous forwards like Felix Gwara, Oliver Kaye, Matthew Searle, and Jacob Thomas-Pryke to spearhead the Blues’ offensive push for a promotion charge and this has already yielded fifteen goals from four games. A 3-4 defeat last week, against Ferring is the only blot on the season thus far.

Upper Beeding FC have experienced a testing start to their 2026/27 Southern Combination Football League Division Two campaign under the continued leadership of manager Ryan Harman. The side entered the early weeks of the autumn schedule looking to find their footing following a tough opening 3-0 defeat, against TD Shipley FC in late August. With Harman supported by assistant manager Josh Measor and coach Jake Locke, the squad is working to establish consistency on the pitch as individual goalscoring tallies and early-season top scorers continue to emerge during the first fixtures of the new campaign. A 5-0 win against Copthorne may not have been unexpected, however Upper Beeding’s recent 0-1 away win at Bosham demonstrated potential that could see them be a dark horse in the league this season.

The game opened with Rustington FC holding much of the possession and creating early chances. Their passing looked secure and there was clearly a threat in the pace their forward line possessed.

With twenty one minutes gone, an error at the back by the Upper Beeding FC defence, let Jordan Clark through again and this time he finished confidently to put the home team 1-0 ahead.

Six minutes later Jordan Clark had made the score 2-0 with a fine headed finish from a corner, to clock up his own brace before the half hour mark.

With the clock showing 32 minutes the goal of the day, with a beautiful long range finish by Ollie Vodden was enough to make the score 3-0. Upper Beeding did look to have pace on the left and tried to counter attack but at the break the sides went in with the score at 3-0 to Rustington FC.

With 55 minutes gone a neat finish from Ollie Millard made it 4-0,to completely kill off Upper Beeding hopes. Things got worse for them ten minutes later when Sam Duncan was dismissed for repeatedly arguing with the referee even when being sin-binned.

With just four minutes left on the clock Rustington FC had a fifth, when the hard working Ryan De Gruchy struck the ball home from the left hand side.

Upper Beeding heads never went down but they were outplayed in all aspects of play today and they needed the final whistle when it came.

Rustington look, on this form, as if they will be able to sustain a challenge at the top half of the SCFL Division 2 table again. The crowd were right behind the home team and enjoyed the fine weather and the goals on the pitch today.