City go out of FA Trophy

By Rhod Mitchell LINK

Truro City 2 Ebbsfleet United 5

 A rousing second half fightback from City  was not enough to save  them from  an FA Trophy first round exit at the hands of the Conference Premier visitors.

Les' stunning strike to make it one each

While the Kent side, who lifted the trophy in 2008, were worthy winners, City were left to regret a  disappointing first half performance.

City went in 3-1 down at the break and soon conceded a fourth, but then put Ebbsfleet under considerable pressure, pulling a goal back with Les Afful's second of the game before conceding a late fifth.

City were badly hit by injuries for the tie, with skipper Jake Ash, Barry Hayles and Marcus Martin all ruled out, with Cody Cooke coming in for his first start.

Stewart Yetton was named on the bench but would not have come on because of injury.
And the game got off to a bad start for the home side when they went behind after only two minutes with Liam   Enver-Marum was allowed to rise unchallenged to head home Michael West's corner.

But out of the blue Les Afful shot them level with a snap shot from the  edge of the area in the 20th minute.
However, City's joy lasted less than two minutes as West put Ebbsfleet 2-1 up when he ran through and beat Tim Sandercombe with a powerful shot.

And when Nathan Pinney, who looked to have used his hand to control the ball,  made it 3-1 from Ranbir Marwa's left cross  City   were in big trouble.

Enver-Marum added Ebbsfleet's fourth seven minutes into the second half  before City raised their game with Afful pulling a goal back with a neat finish.

Andy Watkins should have scored a third for City, but headed straight at Preston Edwards in the Ebbsfleet goal, while player-manager Lee Hodges, who had come on for Cooke, headed against the top of the bar.
Watkins also had strong appeals for a penalty turned down before  Enver-Marum  completed his hat-trick right on time to wrap up the win and place in the last 16.

After the game City boss Lee Hodges said he was bitterly disappointed.
He said: "I thought we gave them too much respect in the first half. But we gave it a real go in the second half."

Sandercombe; McConnell, Pugh, Adams (capt), Walker, Watkins, Palmer,  Broad, Cooke (Hodges 63), Smith, Afful.
Truro City:
Subs (not used): Brooks,  Yetton, Conibear-Trathen.

Ebbsfleet Utd: Edwards; Stone, Lorraine (capt), West (Darvill 90), Marwa, Willcock (Shakes 63), Phipp, Howe, Enver-Marum, Mambo, Pinney (Barrett 79).
Subs (not used): Simpemba, Welch.

Goals: Enver-Marum (2) 0-1, Afful (19) 1-1, West (20) 1-2, Pinney (28) 1-3; Enver-Marum (52) 1-4; Afful (55) 2-4; Enver-Marum (90) 2-5.

Referee: Chris Powell (Poole).
Crowd:  445.

Late goal denies Truro City of victory

By Rhod Mitchell Source: LINK

Eastbourne Borough 2 Truro City 2

A much improved  display by City saw them take a richly deserved Blue Square Bet South point in East Sussex on Tuesday evening.

After their disappointing performance in losing 2-1 at Farnborough on Saturday, City boss Lee Hodges asked for an improvement and he got it with only a late Eastbourne equaliser denying them all three points.

Scotty Walker took his goal tally to ten this season

He made one change from Saturday's line-up with Dan Smith starting up front against his former club and Joe Broad dropping to the bench.

But again City started slowly and soon went behind when Karl Rook headed home and that was the way it stayed until  half time.

But three minutes into the second period, leading scorer Scott Walker's seventh successful penalty of the season got them on level terms after a home defender had handled the ball.

It took Walker's tally for the season to ten and it soon got better for the visitors when Ash stole in at the near post to head home Les Afful's corner.

And with keeper Tim Sandercombe in outstanding form  on a very windy and chilly night, City looked on course with victory until six minutes from time when they failed to deal with a free kick and Ben Watson equalised from close range.

They also suffered a blow when Ash had to be stretchered off following  a bad tackle and he must be a doubt for Saturday's FA Trophy tie at home to Ebbsfleet United.

City though held on for a share of the spoils to make their long trip up a pretty happy one.

Banner advert for the Weston game

A4 size banner advert for the away match at Weston-Super-Mare.

Eastbourne Borough 2 - Truro City 2

The link below accesses the Eastbourne Borough forum and views some of their fans' comments.  It seems that we might have been a bit unlucky not to have won the game.

LINK HERE

Mike Truscott's City Alerts: Lee's view

LEE'S VIEW on Farnborough  2  Truro City  1: 

"We didn't play very well.  We looked tired and really didn't get going until the last 20 minutes, and by then the damage had been done and it was too late.  It was very disappointing because with whoever you play in this league you will pay for it if you don't get out of the blocks straightaway.  We just didn't perform to the levels we had done in recent weeks. 

"The boys gave it everything they had, but there was just no spark there.  We were chuffed that everyone made it, after all the recent sickness - and there was a lot of coughing on the coach - but in the end we just didn't do ourselves justice.  And hats off to Tim Sandercombe, who kept us in the game with a series of really good saves. We've just got to start again now and look for a quick improvement for tomorrow's match, which is going to be a really tough trip."

LEE came on as substitute for his first match action at this level for over a year - came through well and no reaction.

TEAM NEWS for tomorrow night's (Tuesday) visit to Eastbourne Borough, 7.45 pm:  Marcus Martin returns from suspension.  Late fitness check on Barry Hayles.  Sickness bug hopefully no longer an issue.

CITY ALERTS is the official Truro City Football Club news service for supporters and media.  It is sponsored and operated by Mike Truscott of Golden Replay Biographies (www.goldenreplay.com) 

300 Grounds and counting - a sad viewpoint of Treyew Road from a visitor

Source: Flynn123 Link

Truro City – Tuesday August 18th 2009 (363)

The chap who compiles the fixtures list answers all my prayers with this game, as what would normally amount to a 600-mile round trip from my Midlands home is reduced to a mere 160-mile round jaunt from my Devon holiday cottage. So it is that father-in-law and I set out (my son declining the prospect of more quality in-car time) on the road to Cornwall, arriving in good time to explore the delights of Strikers Bar which is set within the stadium.

Actually ‘stadium’ is probably too grand a word to describe Truro’s ground at this stage of its development. The club has enjoyed a rapid rise up the pyramid in recent seasons and with on-pitch progress outstripping off-pitch development, the management has invested in a couple of temporary stands suspiciously similar to those erected at the National Hockey Stadium when MK Dons were born. These face directly opposite a section of covered terracing and the regulation four-row covered seating stand which comprises the rest of the club’s spectator facilities.

Strikers bar is behind one goal and is an impressive facility which includes large screen TV, pool table, dining area, and a bar sporting a handpump, dispensing Sharp’s Doombar on this occasion, despite the large St Austell Brewery advertising boards around the ground. A mobile catering van supplies those not wishing to avail themselves of strikers, and I opt to go against the set menu by requesting a chip bap with onions, duly supplied for a quid.

For today’s Southern Premier League match against Merthyr, we choose to sit in one of the windswept temporary stands, which seem to offer an elevated view of proceedings. Unfortunately we share it with Mr Foulmouth from the Valleys who seems incapable of making a statement without resorting to the more questionable parts of the Oxford English Dictionary. This is duly noted by several of the locals, the largest of whom scales several rows of seats for a face-to-face discussion on the subject. We decide that the second half should see us move to the relative calm of the smaller stand opposite.

Truro look a reasonably strong outfit, save for a keeper whose lack of presence is bettered only by his ability to welly every goalkick straight into touch. Regardless of that, the home side build up a two-goal lead, and despite a second half response from the visitors number ten – the stand-out player on the pitch – a late third ties up the points.

Truro’s ambitions seem to be aimed at a much higher level, but a lot of work on the ground would need to be undertaken before we’d see a Cornish team in the Football League. Which would probably see many a distant club – faced with the prospect of a lengthy road-trip – breath a huge sigh of relief.

Floodlight pylons: six
Parakeets: the odd gull or two
Toilets: in the corner next to the changing rooms
Tannoy music: Inaudible and indecipherable
Club Shop: I’m sure there was one but I can’t remember for the life of me where it was!
Quirkiest player name: Truro’s Danny ‘Cassius’ Clay

{The saddest part of this story is that little has changed in the two years since the article was written. ps. the picture included was too distressing to show here}. Eds.