Chichester City in top six – but still having too many off-days

City’s Southern League Premier South campaign continued with a 1-0 loss at Bracknell on Saturday – followed by a pleasing 3-1 win at home to FA Cup heroes Berkhamsted on Tuesday night.

The results leave Miles Rutherford’s men sixth in the table – but the boss said with more consistency, they could easily be in the top three.

After a single long-range strike beat them at Brcknell, goals by James Sweet, Brandon Chebby and Emmett Dunn clinched the midweek win, their seventh in 13 league outings.

Rutherford said: “The past week has shown where we are – very up and down.

"It’s been the same all season so far – we have lost to some struggling sides and beaten some better sides.

"In fact over the past three or four years it’s been the same, we’ve had a good run then thrown in a real off-day.

"But the off-days, maybe in one game in four, are too frequent.

"We’re in a good position in the league but it could be better if we were more consistent, and having fewer bad days.”

Rutherford said he could not fault the effort of the squad, who’d been putting in plenty of hard work at training and in matches to get City to where they now stood.

And he said he felt their ups and downs were typical of many teams in their league.

“There’s no-one clear at the top or adrift at the bottom. Any team can beat any other team on their day.”

Coach Darin Killpartrick said the difference between the defeat and the win was simple – it was about the basics.

"Against Bracknell, we didn’t do the basics right and paid the price, although it was a tight game and we could easily have drawn,” he said.

"But in midweek we did do the basics right and it was the platform for a very good win. That shows you the importance of those basics.”

City’s hectic October continues with an FA Trophy first round visit to league rivals Gosport Borough.

There’s £3,000 prize money for winners in this round and Rutherford said: “It’s another game against a team we have not played for a very long time.

"We’re looking forward to it.”

Killpartrick said: “We’d love to go further in the Trophy – there’s a lot of prestige in the competition for any club.”

Net Tuesday City return to Southern League action at home to fourth-placed Hanworth Villa.