It’s been an up-anddown start to the season for Chichester City.
Chichester City boss Miles Rutherford says his side’s performances have not been good enough – despite them getting through two rounds of the FA Cup.
Rutherford says City have made a lethargic start to the season and will get found out in the Isthmian south east division if they don’t sharpen up quickly.
Chi lost their league opener 3-1 at home to Ramsgate on Saturday, a team they beat on the first day last season. Either side of that, they have come through two rounds of the FA Cup with wins over Basingstoke Town and Cribb – but slow starts meant they had to come from behind in each game.
Rutherford says something is not right and it is difficult to put his fingeronwhatitis.
“We’ve not been good all pre-season,” he told the
“We’re missing a few key players but that doesn’t account entirely for how we’ve been playing.
“In certain games we’re having a poor first half then having to work very hard to get back into it.
“In the Cup we’ve got away with it
Observer. twice but in the league against Ramsgate, we didn’t.
“The players have been great for two or three years now and I’m not moaning about them but we’re not clicking and know as a group we have to improve.”
The games are coming thick and fast, with a league visit to Whyteleafe coming up on Saturday before an FA Cup second qualifying round tie a week later. And Rutherford knows that at the level City are now playing at, a team will get punished if off the pace or making mistakes.
He said it was possible the squad were struggling to return to last season’s levels, which saw them flirt with the play-offs and get through seven rounds of the FA Cup, because of the long lay-off over lockdown.
But he said that was no excuse as it was the same for all clubs.
“Some of our performances have been laboured. I won’t lose sleep over it at this stage but it’s an unforgiving league and we need to get better,” he added.
Rutherford will be boosted by the imminent return of players like Kaleem Haitham and Gicu Iordache, while skipper Connor Cody is fit again. But Emmett Dunn was hurt in Tuesday’s Cup win and Ryan Davidson is out for around a month.
There was a double dose of success for local sides on a dramatic Tuesday night of FA Cup football.
Chichester City won their second Cup tie in nine days as they came from behind to beat Cribbs 3-1 at Oaklands Park.
And Bognor needed a second-half fightback and a penalty shootout to overcome lower-division South Park in Surrey.
At Oaklands Park, Chichester – who had needed to come from two down to overcome Basingstoke in the preliminary round last week – fell behind again when Steve Murray put Cribbs ahead eight minutes before the break.
Ben Pashley levelled forcity on 58 minutes and nine minutes later Josh Clack drove in their second – shortly before being sent off for a late tackle.
As Cribbs pushed for an injury-time equaliser Ethan Pritchard broke to make it 3-1 and secure a second qualifying round spot.
At South Park, Bognor were two down in 37 minutes, Lalor Dell and Nasim Dukali the scorers.
A determind second-half effort topped off by goals from Jordy Mongoy and Keaton Wood, the second 11 minutes from time, took it to penalties.
Tommy Leigh, Mongoy and Sam Dowridge scored for Bognor and despite Jake Flanningan missing, a save from Amadou Tangara meant Brad Lethbridge just had to score to send Bognor through – and he did.
Chi City 1 Ramsgate 3 Isthmian south east
Chichester suffered an opening day loss at home to Ramsgate as the Isthmian season got under way.
Miles Rutherford & Co went with the same starting XI that lined up against Basingstoke in the FA Cup.
Chichester missed a few first-half chances and were made to rue them just after the restart when Mitchell Chapmanbrokethedeadlock with a simple finish from close range.
Josh Clack might have levelled after Ryan Penny and Corey Heath exchanged passes in a slick move but the keeper pushed his shot round for a corner.
The hosts were 2-0 down before the hour as George Nikaj ran on to a measured through ball and beat Steve Mowthorpe to his left. And Nikaj increased the lead within five minutes after Mowthorpe and his defenders failed to clear.
Declan Seiden and Rory Biggs came on for Chi and a clever pass from Seiden picked out Biggs in the box.
The midfielder was brought down and the ref had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Clack stepped up and converted to give Chichester a lifeline with 25 minutes to go.
They visit Whyteleafe in the league on Saturday.
Selsey
Selsey boss Daren Pearce wants his team to rediscover theirformwithahomeleague clash against Billingshurst on Saturday.
The Blues have had an upand-down start to the season and lost 4-0 at Romsey in the FA Vase on Saturday.
Pearce said: “We were a little disappointed as we started the game well. Although we went behind and went in 1-0 down at the break, we came out in the second half and thought we’d levelled only for it to be disallowed.
“This changed the game and knocked us a bit and then we got caught pushing for the equaliser for their second.
“After that we just tried to get back into the game only to be punished again. So a disappointing day.
“Now we need to get back to basics on Saturday.”
Sidlesham 3 Southbourne 2 WSFL Champ south
It’s a new start for Sidlesham - in a different league and at a new ground. After problems with the parish council meant they could not carry on playing SCFL football at the Selsey Road Rec last season, Steve Bailey’s team are now in the West Sussex League’s Championship south division.
They started the season with a 3-2 home win over Southbourne. The visitors started well but Lewis Tribe, making his Sids debut in goal, was largely untroubled.
Sids took the lead when MOM Joe Gromett was brought down in the box, and the penalty was dispatched by skipper Alfie Bunker.
A nice passage of football from Southbourne resulted in an equaliser, a ferocious strike into the top corner.
Sids retook the lead midway through the half, a long throw routine finished superbly by Gromett.
A long clearance from Southbourne’skeepereluded everyone except a sharp forward who made it 2-2. Again Sids rallied and were rewarded when Jono Tallent squeezed the ball home to make amends for a glaring miss just minutes earlier.
Tallent was sin-binned for dissentleavingsidstodefend for their lives.
Boss Bailey said: “Three points on the opening day is always a big lift for any team but we will have to up our game if we’re to push for promotion.”
Bosham 1 Charlwood 3 SCFL division two
A defeat to the league newcomers left the Rpbins still looking for their first win.
On the quarter-hour Jamie Liddell’s overhead kick fell to Steve Payne, who fired past a stranded Bosham keeper Jack Hickman.
Bosham levelled right on half-time as Josh Mines found himself in space outside the box and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
Charlwood eased back in front with 20 minutes left as Liddell outran defenders and then bullied his way past Hickman to score from a tight angle.
A few minutes later Ben Herdman sealed the deal for the league newbies.
Bosham host Littlehampton United this week.