St Albans City VS Truro City FC: Match Report

Photo credit: Truro City Football Club – City goalscorer Adam Porter celebrates at full-time

Match Report

by Gareth Davies, Clarence Park, Saturday

Vanarama National League South

St Albans City: 1 – Truro City: 2

Truro City picked up their second away win of the calendar year with a deserved victory over high flying St Albans.

In a game of few clear-cut chances, Paul Wotton’s side scored twice in seven second half minutes, just after the hour mark.

Firstly, Andrew Neal finished off a fine team move to put the visitors ahead before Adam Porter, with his first touch of the ball, slammed home from inside the box to double his side’s advantage.

City nerves did start to jangle nine minutes from time when Zane Banton’s looping effort found the mark but Truro held on and in doing so, moved up a place to 19^th in the National League South standings.

After a comprehensive 4-1 reverse last time out at the hands of Chelmsford City, City chief Wotton made four changes to his starting line-up.

At the back, Ed Palmer recovered sufficiently from a hamstring strain to replace Sam Sanders, who dropped to the bench. The York loanee was names as a substitute alongside James Melhado, with Ryan Law taking his place.

The former Plymouth Argyle defender moved to his familiar role of left wing back and Connor Riley-Lowe switched to the right.

In midfield, there was a straight swap between Dan Rooney and Ryan Brett, with the latter starting while up front, Neal came in for Ollie Bray who missed out altogether.

The early exchanges saw both sides cancel the other out with Tom Harrison’s 13^th minute header easily gathered by home custodian Michael Johnson.

Despite their dominance with the ball and in terms of territory too, St Albans failed to test James Hamon in the City goal until seven minutes shy of the break.

However, Dom Hutchinson’s effort was saved with ease by James Hamon.

City had arguably the game’s best chance just shy of the interval when Tyler Harvey was denied and Dan Sullivan could only put the follow up into the side netting.

Into the second stanza and St Albans settled well, forcing a succession of corners, but City held firm with Neal breaking the deadlock after 61 minutes.

A sweeping move forward saw the pint-sized hitman finish well into the net to leave Johnson with no chance and City had forged ahead.

It got even better shortly after when Porter, on as a replacement for Sullivan, saw his first involvement in the game result in a second Truro goal.

A loose ball wasn’t cleared by the St Albans defence and there was the former Stoke City midfielder to score.

Even with City’s winless run on the road, which pre-game stretched back to January 6, and St Albans’ impressive run of just one loss in six games, the majority of the healthy Clarence Park crowd, which topped 2,000, would have had Truro as favourites to prevail.

The visitors were defending manfully to frustrate St Albans but the hosts grabbed a lifeline nine minutes from time when Zane Banton’s cross-cum-shot found the top corner.

Game very much back on, but City dug in and for the remainder of regulation time and six additional minutes, Truro kept St Albans out with relative comfort.

The final whistle then brought palpable relief for the visiting team and its supporters, who, once again, acted as City’s twelfth man throughout.

Truro City: Hamon, Palmer, Adelsbury, Harrison, Riley-Lowe, Dean, Brett, Sullivan (Porter, 65), Law, Harvey, Neal. Subs not used: Melhado, Sanders, Rooney

St Albans City: Johnson, Wiltshire (Weiss, 60), Brown, Smith, Rasulo (Mensah, 75), Jeffers, Banton, Clark, Hutchinson (James, 75), Francis-Clark, Burger. Subs not used: Bowry, Blackman.

Referee: Luis Griffiths

Attendance: 2,029

Match Reaction from Paul Wotton

Boss Paul Wotton says the 2-1 away win over St Albans was a ‘huge three points’ for his side.

Goals from Andrew Neal and substitute Adam Porter put City firmly in the driving seat during the second half before Zane Banton scored for the hosts nine minutes from time.

But City saw out the game with relative ease to record a morale-boosting away win – their first since early January.

Victory hoists Truro up a place in the National League South standings and towards safety, with a number of games in hand on every side in the lower echelons of the division.

“It was a huge three points,” Wotton told trurocity.co.uk. “I’m delighted with the performance and the result because we deserved that today.

“St Albans had all the ball, all the possession but it doesn’t matter because Hammy (James Hamon, Truro goalkeeper) didn’t have a save to make. I actually think their goal was rather fortuitous and the lad didn’t mean it.

“We deserved (the win) on sheer will, work rate and heart. I don’t think that has always been there in certain games so to react right from the Chelmsford defeat was really important.

“Overall, it is a good day because not many teams come here and win. We scored with two good finishes and in training on Thursday, we worked hard on our game plan and we executed it perfectly.

“To a man, the boys stuck to that plan and listen, St Albans are a really good team. They are sharp around the edge of the box, bounce it off the front man and use runners. We knew we had to do the dirty side of the game and although there was a couple of blocks in the box, I will say again that Hammy hasn’t had a lot to do.

“I’m not getting carried away because our results haven’t been good enough of late but we will enjoy this one, then prepare for a hell of a game on Tuesday night.”

City had to withstand St Albans’ dominance on the ball and in terms of territory, although the 46-year-old, who is into his fifth year as Truro chief, said he was comfortable with his side winning ugly.

“We spoke about the first 20 minutes being a horrible football game,” Wotton added. “We are all football purists, but we had to do what we had to do. We weren’t great in the first 20 to 25 minutes but we did grow into the game and I said at half-time for the lads to just believe in themselves on the ball.

“The first time we strung a couple of passes together we scored and although we are always striving to be better, this isn’t the time in the season for beautiful football.

“We were ugly today and I have no problem with that.”

Wotton also reserved special praise for the City fans, who made themselves heard throughout, what at times, was a tough watch, after making a near 540-mile round trip from the Duchy to Hertfordshire.

“I’m happy for the boys and I have to mention the fans too,” he remarked. “They were non-stop chanting for Truro and it was fantastic to celebrate with them at the end.

“Like all of us, they haven’t had it easy recently so this is great for them.”