Same again? That will do nicely for Chichester City

Manager Miles Rutherford says there have been no departures so far from the group that took City to the second round of the FA Cup and sixth place in the Isthmian south east division in their first year at step four of the non-league game.

He is close to adding one or two new faces to the squad and thinks it’s likely pre-season training will start in early August.

City will again be led by the same management quartet – Rutherford as manager, Graeme Gee as assistant and Danny Potter and Darin Killpartrick as coaches.

They’ve added three new faces to the backroom team – Ant Ender will be goalkeeping coach, James Brierley-Reece assistant goalkeeping coach and Sam Wright the new strenght and conditioning lead.

Meanwhile coach Potter has put almost all the squad through their paces by holding a series of small and informal training sesssions at Oaklands Park.

Rutherford said: “Some of the boys have been doing a bit of training but it’s quite informal and it’s just for those that want it at this time – and a lot of them do.

“We don’t know anything for sure but I think the season will start late September – maybe October for the league fixtures.

“That would mean we’d be needing to start pre-season in the first or second week of August.”

Rutherford said he was delighted the players who gave City such a fine 2019-20 season were staying at Oaklands Park.

He said: “We’re hoping to keep most of last season’s team, in fact we’d like to keep all of them. There have been no departures as far as I know.

“There’s not a lot of player movement between clubs generally at the moment and I don’t think there will be in the current climate.

“I’d like to bring in one or two additional players and a couple are close.”

Rutherford knows it will be difficult for City to repeat the success of a campaign in which his team surprised many by faring so well in the league and FA Cup.

“The second year in a new league can be harder,” he said.

“As much as we had a good year last year, now we will find out what we are really about.”

Potter said he’d been pleased to see most of the squad attending his socially distanced training sessions.

The few who have not made it to at least one include Emmett Dunn, who is at home in Canada, Gicu Iordache, who is back in Romania, and Scott Jones, who is ‘stranded overseas’ ... on the Isle of Wight.

Potter said: “It’s been great to see the lads and as you’d expect they’ve all kept themselves in good physical shape. The skipper Connor Cody leads by example in that respect.

“We’ll start a proper pre-season when we need to and we’re all looking forward to getting fully back into it.”

Looking longer-term Chi City are hoping to install a new 4G pitch at Oaklands Park next summer to boost the amount of men’s, women’s and youth football they can accommodate.