It’s a struggle for Chichester City – on and off the pitch

Recent results have seen City slip to 13th in the south east division table and they’re now just a point in front of Lancing, who occupy the top relegation play-off spot.

Rutherford’s men have started 2023 with defeats at East Grinstead (3-2) and at home to Sheppey (2-0) and need to improve when they go to Burgess Hill on Saturday and host Whitehawk next Tuesday.

But the manager said the season was proving a challenge for City both on and off the field.

Low crowds are a factor in the club struggling to make money – and that means even staying at step four of the non-league game is far from easy.

"In terms of results, we’re lacking confidence at the moment – although I’d say the Sheppey game was only the second match this season where we’ve truly deserved nothing,” he said.

"But as a club we have a lot of big challenges. There are things going on behind the scenes to try to generate income.

"We had a good FA Cup run in 2019 that brought in a big sum but it was never going to last forever, and Covid and all the lockdowns swallowed up a lot of it.

"We are only getting 150 or so at home games and at this level you need 300 to 400 to do well, so that’s another challenge for us.

"We’re working hard to put things in place that will help us stay at this level but for a club of our size there are no guarantees.”

Rutherford admitted recent results had dragged his team into what could become a relegation battle.

Only one point separates the sides from 11th down to 17th – where the Lancers are in that top ‘danger’ spot.

Rutherford said: "Three or four wins can get up around the play-off places but three or four defeats take you right down.

"We have some tough games coming up and we need to lift the players and try to get some wins.

"At the start of the season we had seven or eight players playing really well – now we have that number not performing well. We’re doing our best but at this stage it’s all about getting some results under our belts.”

Report – page 78