Chichester City coach: We deserved win that's set us up for run of Oaklands Park matches

The Oaklands Park outfit had slipped to 16th in the league after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Faversham, a result which left them without a league victory in four games.

But any worries that a post-FA Cup run hangover could continue and give them problems near the wrong end of the table were blown away by a fine and deserved 3-0 win away to VCD Athletic.

Kaleem Haitham and Gicu Iordache put them 2-0 up within 35 minutes and Josh Clack made sure of the win with the third 11 minutes from time.

It was Chi’s fifth away league win of the season and lifted them back into the mid-table pack. They’re 13th and with games in hand over every other team in the division, with some sides having played as many as five more than them.

The result sets up Miles Rutherford’s team for a run of four straight home league games, starting with the visits of Whitstable on Saturday and Herne Bay next Tuesday.

City coach Danny Potter said it was a vital three points against a good side.

“We played well and I think it was a fair result,” said Potter. “VCD passed the ball well but we were the better team and had pace and aggression and better direction with the ball.”

Before this success, Chi had picked up only two points from their previous four – drawing at home to Guernsey and Burgess Hill and losing at Hastings and Faversham.

Potter said: “We’ve been disappointed with some of our recent results. But we said before this game we couldn’t change those results, but instead had to look at putting things right in the next three or four games by correcting errors. This was a very good first step in doing that.”

It was a City line-up that had Ben Pashley back in the heart of defence after he returned from a spell at Worthing, while Rory Biggs, who has had a stop-start campaign, was their man of the match in central midfield.

Now the challenge is to improve their home form, which has yielded only one win and three draws from six league matches at Oaklands Park.

Potter said: “I think teams come to us with a different game plan. When we are at home teams know what they need to try to do to stop us, but when we’re away, we’re brave on the ball and maybe home sides don’t expect that from a promoted team.

“We have four in a row at home now and we’ll take them one at a time.”

Chi hope to continue seeing large crowds at their Oaklands fixtures. The run to the second round of the FA Cup brought them a legion of new supporters – and so far the signs are that many are sticking with them now the run is over.

“We’re consistently getting twice as many at home as were getting in winning the SCFL last season,” Potter said. “That’s very encouraging. We’ve built better relationships with people in Chichester and must look to continue that trend.”

Saturday’s squad will include two key men who were unavailable at VCD – midfielder Matt Axell and striker Scott Jones.

Potter said there was competition for places in the squad and forward Callum Overton remained the only long-term casualty.