By Nigel Walrond

SALTASH United manager Dane Bunney says he made Ryan Richards a “great offer” in an attempt to lure the striker back to Kimberley Stadium after he made the decision to leave Plymouth Parkway, before he opted to join Torpoint Athletic.

Richards scored 45 goals in all competitions in the 2019-20 season for the Ashes before taking the step up to Parkway, who were then in the Western League.

He was being widely tipped to revert back to Saltash following their promotion to the Western League, but he has now opted for a return to the South West Peninsula League with Torpoint instead.

Bunney said: “We made him a great offer and one I didn’t think he would turn down, but it is what it is, and at this stage in his life and in his own personal circumstances, he needs to play a bit closer to home and not do the travelling, which is fair enough.”

On leaving Parkway, Richards tweeted: “It’s with a heavy heart that I will be leaving for personal reasons.

“I want to thank everyone at the club for everything over the last 12 months. The club have high ambitions which will no doubt be met eventually. I wish everyone at the club the best.”

Torpoint boss Dean Cardew was delighted with his new signing, commenting: “I’m very excited to sign Ryan. I’ve been trying to sign him for the last five years and my persistence has finally paid off.”

However, the Ashes have held on to talented young forward Reece Thomson, who was a target for Western League Premier Division rivals Tavistock. “To be fair to Stuart (Henderson, Tavistock manager), he did things spot on and rang me up and told me he would like to go for Reece,” explained Bunney.

“I really appreciated the way he went about it, and let me know out of courtesy, and I didn’t stand in his way to go and speak to Reece,and thankfully he has decided to stay with us, which is great because he is a massive part of our plans.

“It is testament again to the togetherness of the side. It takes something special to prize people away from it.

“Reece has done alright with offers over the last 12 months, with Plymouth Parkway last summer and now Tavistock, and he has knocked them both back, so I am delighted he is staying.”

Bunney has Thomson, Sam Hughes, Ben Holter and new signing Tom Cleveland as his options up front and says he is not really looking to add to that impressive quartet.

“I wasn’t really looking for anyone to be honest, but Ryan is one you can’t ignore and when that came along you have got to act, but I’m quite happy with what I have got at the minute.

“If someone else appears then maybe I will look at it then, but I am not really actively going out and searching for people.

“We have got Reece, Sam, Ben and Tom, and I think you will see Fletcher Williams doing a job up there as well out on the wide right.

“He was quite effective there in the end-of-season friendlies we played about six weeks ago.

“I’m hoping he is over his injury problems, and we can get a full pre-season under his belt and we can get him moving.”