The visit of Truro City

On Saturday City’s schizophrenic nature reared it’s ugly head once again. After the previous fine performance at Twerton, the boys in black and white had made a midweek trip to Eastbourne Borough and had returned with a superb 3-0 away victory.

Therefore, with bottom of the table Truro City being the visitors and with City apparently in fine fettle, hopes were high that the Cornishmen would be swept aside by a rampant Bath City. Alas, if following City has taught me (and everyone else with a love of the Twerton Parkers) it is that you never, ever count your chickens before they hatch, and never expect City to play well or to play badly, they are too unpredictable.

Truro looked to be going out of business when we went to play them in October, with debts mounting after their rise up the leagues. Truro City were founded in 1889, and up until very recently were a very provincial team (like all Cornish teams where the travelling costs curtail thoughts of bigger regional leagues) They were founder members of the South Western League in 1951 and all apart from 3 seasons competed in that league until 2006 when they joined the Western League (with Bradford Town, Odd Down, Larkhall etc) they rapidly progressed through the Western League until the won the Southern League Championship in 2011 promoting them to the Conference South. During this period of success they also won the FA Vase in 2006/07 becoming the most successful Cornish team of all time, by becoming the first to win a national trophy.

However, this meteoric rise was heavily subsidised and when the owner’s company went tits up, Truro City very nearly followed it out of business. They were saved by a £50,000 bond paid to the Conference, but the 10 point deduction and loss of players (although clearly money has been found from somewhere as they have resigned Barry Hayles, so no sympathy if they do go out of business having made the same mistake twice) has left them marooned at the foot of the table.

In team news, Joe Burnell had contracted appendicitis and had been operated on to remove the vestigial organ. Therefore Gethin Jones made an appearance in centre midfield, while once again Charlie Griffin warmed the bench. The guy is by far and away the best player City have, and while he maybe aging a bit, given how he only played the last 10 at Eastbourne it was more than a bit perplexing not to see him start.

Then came 90 minutes of pure unadulterated shite. In the first half the clearest opportunity fell to Morgan, when the ball was played back into his path, but he dragged his shot wide, and that was basically it other than a couple of half chances.

In the second half, there was a clear handball, when Chamberlain shot and it hit the outstretched arms of the Truro defender, this wasn’t given as presumably the referee decided the player couldn’t get out of the way, but I am not convinced, then almost immediately after Chris Allen was felled and more appeals for a penalty were disregarded.

Morgan, Connolly and  Allen were eventually subbed (replaced by Low, Canham and Griffin) , and Kerry Morgan seemed to storm off down the tunnel, which was only a warning of the tempers and arguments that were to follow.

As the game entered injury time it appeared the game was heading to a drab goalless draw which rivalled Boreham Wood for its awfulness. Then an long ball was knocked forward into the City half and somehow it fell to Andrew Watkins, the Truro attacker perfectly connected and as soon as it left his foot you knew it had beaten Mellor. The lob from 25 yards out was a rare moment of skill in the game.

I can only assume it was Mark Preece who missed a header/clearance to allow the ball through as Charlie Griffin proceeded to tear him apart, Preece tried to argue back and this brought even more finger pointing and shouting from Griffin. Preece had actually had a good game up to that point, but such is the risk for centre backs that one mistake can be very costly.

Ridiculously, having gone behind in the 91^st minute City finally started to play. Sekani Simpson whipped a ball into the box that the Truro keeper fumbled, Griffin reacted quickest and knocked the ball towards the goal, however, agonisingly the ball was cleared off of the line.

At this moment, we noticed the almighty argument that appeared to be happening around the dugout, Howells, John Freeguard, Aaron Hopkinson and someone I couldn’t work out were involved in a slanging match with some fans on the main stand terrace. There were wild gesticulations, and God only knows what was said, although reports suggest it was borderline (depending on where you draw your border I guess!) abusive.

While this was going on, City won a throw in deep in Truro’s half, a long Aaron Brown throw was launched into the box Charlie Griffin got a flick to it and the ball fell to Low at the back stick, the wideman leapt high into the air and managed to connect with a cushioned sidefoot into the roof of the net. City had snatched a draw from defeat, the wounded White Tiger’s players slumped while Twerton celebrated.

How City got a draw from that game I will never know, but it once again showed football’s power to corrupt the senses as moments earlier we had been bemoaning the awfulness of the game, before a last little burst at least gave us something to smile about. Hopefully, away at Dover on Saturday the more adventurous City will appear, but before that there is the small (very small really) matter of the Somerset Premier Cup against Odd Down.

Post Script... Since writing this but not posting it, City have played Odd Down. I went and City won 2-0. Joe Lennox played after being released by Plymouth Argyle, and for reasons unknown Charlie Griffin played 90 minutes....hmmmm...