Woeful – and nowhere near good enough: Chichester City boss condemns midweek display

City earned a creditable 1-1 at Ashford United on Saturday but failed to build on it with another trip to Kent in midweek, which brought their worst league display of the season.

Rutherford’s team are ninth, seven points off the play-off zone, and host fourth-placed Whitehawk on Saturday, when they will need a big improvement on Tuesday night’s effort.

Rutherford told us: “We’ve been playing okay recently but Tuesday night was nowhere near the standards we expect.

"We’ve had high standards for the past three or four years and we didn’t see this coming. It was one of our worst performances since I’ve been manager.

"We were outworked. Some of our players seemed to think they didn’t have to work hard to get a result but we are a team who need to show that side of the game. The players have been told it wasn’t good enough. We sat them down for 20 or 25 minutes in the dressing room afterwards. There was no shouting but they have been told quite clearly we expect better.

"It looked like some might have been out celebrating England’s World Cup win on Sunday and hadn’t recovered.

"Beckenham aren’t the best team we’ve played but they worked hard and that’s why they beat us 4-1. We were woeful.”

Josh Clack’s goal was all they had to show for their efforts at Beckenham, while at Ashford on Saturday, Connor Cody scored his first of the season to secure a 1-1 draw.

Rutherford said the display at Ashford was more like the City he’d come to know – and they’d need to be back at the best to take on the high-flying Hawks at Oaklands Park on Saturday.

"I can accept one performance a season like we saw on Tuesday, so I don’t want any more like it now. Whitehawk are a good side and they’ll punish us if we’re not on it – as most teams in this league will.”

Forward Callum Overton has joined Pagham on dual registration to get game time.