Former Rocks forward Jimmy Wild struck twice to condemn Robbie Blake’s men to a 2-1 reverse at Oaklands Park in front of a sun-kissed Bank Holiday attendance of 1,355.
Wild pounced from close range in the 22nd minute but Matt Burgess brought the visitors level when he bundled the ball over the line on 39 minutes.
But Wild regained the advantage for City when he fired home from the penalty spot in the 58th minute.
The Rocks couldn’t find a way back into the game in what was in truth a frustrating and disjointed display. And to compound the misery, Robson went down with a serious looking knee injury with 20 minutes to go and had to be stretchered off and looked in real discomfort.
Blake had to shuffle his pack after losing Lucas Pattenden to injury after he aggravated it in the 2-2 draw at home to Hendon at Nyewood Lane on Saturday.
The loss leaves Blake’s men second bottom of the Isthmian premier division having picked up just two points from a possible 15 and not having won a game thus far this campaign.
Next up for Bognor is a trip to Aylesbury Vale Dynamos on Saturday in the FA Cup 1st qualifying round.
Rocks captain Calvin Davies asked supporters to back the team in an impassioned post-match interview with Peter Hood from Rocks Radio.
He said: “I want to apologise. I understand people’s frustrations and we know these people care about the club. We need to rally as a team, we need people to get behind us.
“I want to say that I requested to do this interview over the manager; he shouldn’t have to face it because the players have put him in the sh*t.
“We owe the club a big one and we are aiming to put it right and we will put it right. We have got a young team and new additions and it’s about time that we face up to it (the responsibility).”
Commenting on the loss of Robson, the skipper added: “It doesn’t look good but obviously we have got to give it a couple of days and see how it settles. But big teams lose big players and it’s how we react to it that matters.
“We now have an FA Cup game on Saturday where we look to improve the performance so we will go from there.
“I don’t think that we have started many games well, to be honest — we seem to react when we go 2-0 down but from my point of view, you look at the goals conceded there are all our doing; I don’t think that we have conceded a good goal — they have been our mistakes and we have to take responsibility and we have to start getting together as a team. Let’s be honest about this, this is a tough league and we have got to react to that.
“There is a good togetherness, it is no different to last year but something is not clicking. The players believe in the management and I just thought it was right to face it (the interview) today. We all must take responsibility.
“We have started the league poorly and we have a long time to go; I would just ask people to believe in us and give us their patience. I know it runs out quickly; if I was the other side of the fence I would be kicking off as well because I would not be happy about the performances.
“We have to man up. I don’t care if you’re 30 or 18, this is a men’s game so we are a team that is together you can blame young kids, the captain, Robbo you can blame anyone but as we have to push on and that’s what we will be looking to do and hopefully everyone will join that.”
Bognor Regis Town: 1 Joe Besant 2 Harvey Whyte, 3 Hayden Gale, 4 Calvin Davies 5 Spencer Spurway (Tyler Edmondson 59′), 6 Craig Robson (Callum Barlow 75′), 7 Doug Tuck, 8 Matt Burgess, 9 Dan Gifford, 10 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 11 Jasper Mather (Rocco Gamblin 76′) Subs: 12 Callum Barlow, 14 Tyler Edmondson, 15 Rocco Gamblin, 16 Finn Evans, 17 Ryan Hall.
