Chichester City’s focus turns to FA Trophy after early Cup exit

They play Southall – the same team who knocked them out of the Cup – as the Trophy competition gets under way on Saturday.

The visit to the mid-table Isthmian south central team represents a good chance of making progress for a City side who have found form after a sluggish start.

But Rutherford admits they will have to perform better than they did in losing 1-0 at Southall in the FA Cup five weeks ago.

Since then City are unbeaten – having beaten Broadbridge Heath on penalties in the Velocity Trophy and taken seven points from their opening three Isthmian south east matches to sit third in the early table.

Their attempt to gain momentum has not been helped by a fixture list that has left them without a game since Bank Holiday Monday’s league win at Broadbridge Heath.

Rutherford said: “We went out of the FA Cup to Southall and were disappointed to lose.

"It was our first competitive game but we started the season slowly and weren’t into our rhythrm at that stage.

"We’ve been okay since then but we could have done with a match last weekend after a couple of league wins over the bank holiday weekend.

"It’s been a stop-start period and that doesn’t help you – although it’s been the same for a lot of teams.

"But because we’re already out of the FA Cup, the FA Trophy takes on more importance.

"If you can get through a couple of rounds it breeds confidence and brings in some useful revenue, so we will give it a good go.

"There wasn’t much between us and Southall in the FA Cup game and I’d expect it to be fairly tight again. It’s a tie that could go either way.”

As reported in the Observer, City are playing home matches at Bognor for the first half of the season while a new 3G pitch is installed at Oaklands Park.

Rutherford said their first game there – which brought a 3-0 win over Lancing – was encouraging but added: “We could do with getting more people over there to watch us.”