Wins over Bognor and Kingstonian show Chichester City have turned a corner

City followed up a 2-1 league victory over neighbours Bognor with a 4-1 FA Cup win away to Kingstonian.

Last Saturday’s success over a side who, until this season, have long been above Chi in the non-league pyramid is further evidence that Miles Rutherford’s team are capable of holding their own at step three.

City have won two in a row after three straight defeats – and while Potter is delighted, he also knows the tough tests will keep on coming.

Next up is an Isthmian Premier trip to Cheshunt on Saturday – while a week later, National League South high flyers Slough Town will visit Oaklands Park in the next round of the FA Cup.

They came through their first qualifying round tie with Kingstonian thanks to first-half goals by Joe Clarke, Jimmy Wild (2) and Rob Hutchings.

Potter said: “We feel we’ve now turned a bit of a corner in terms of what we want to achieve.

"I felt for Kingstonian in a way as they played good football and had chances. But we were more clinical. When we got the ball forward we were deadly.

"In the past few years we’ve often been good in possession without hurting teams, but we now have more ability to turn chances into goals.

"We’ve started to be braver with the ball – not afraid to lose it.

"We could have had more than four on Saturday and we felt our fourth goal – involving Lloyd Rowlatt and Emmett Dunn and finished by Jimmy Wild – was one of the best we’d scored for years.”

City have lost the services of Connor Cody – he has moved back to Whitehawk. And they have loaned Jamie Horncastle and Josh Clack to AFC Portchester to get game time.

Potter is relishing the next couple of games. “We’ve played a number of teams expected to be at the top and the players have worked physically very hard to get their levels up.

“Cheshunt and then Slough will give us hard games but we’re looking forward to them. We’d love to see another 1,000-plus in for the Cup tie.”