Chichester City boss gives stark verdict on season so far: We've not been good enough

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 finger on what it is.

“We’ve not been good all pre-season,” he told the Observer.

“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 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.