TRURO City’s reserve team’s poor form in the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League division one (west) continued as they were beaten 5-1 away at Penzance on Friday.

A superb hat-trick from Magpies’ James Miller and good performance from former City midfielder Justin Harrington was enough for the home side as they ran out comfortable winners.

The win extended Penzance’s lead at the top of the Carlsberg division one table to four points, for 24 hours, until Porthleven closed the gap with a good win at home to Camelford. However, the loss now means City haven’t won in the league since November and have suffered heavy defeats to both Penryn Athletic and Hayle.

The Magpies were faster out of the traps with Miller putting them infront after only two minutes, when his low shot beat City ‘keeper Jason Peters at the near post after good work by Jon Ludlam and Matt Drummond.

Miller should have got a second goal moments later when his 30-yard strike rattled the crossbar and bounced down just the right side of the line from a Truro perspective.

However, City weren’t as lucky 10 minutes later when Miller latched onto a Ludlam cross and fired in an rasping volley for 2-0.

City did offer chances on the counter-attack, with Rob Dunn forcing a good save from home ‘keeper Sid Taylor midway through the first half.

However, Penzance continued to create the majority of the chances, with Andy Westgarth, Mark Vercesi and Ludlam all going close to extending the lead. Truro pulled a goal back after 28 minutes, when a former Penzance player got on the scoresheet. Lewis Ellis, who had a good game at full-back, played an excellent through-ball to Paul Cox, who rounded the Taylor in the home goal before slotting the ball into an empty net.

However, if this was Truro’s ticket back into the match then they failed to board the comeback train as Penzance’s steamed their way into a four-goal advantage.

Drummond's pace posed plenty of problems for the visitors and he might have put his side 3-1 up before the break but he had his effort was disallowed for offside. Nonetheless, the Magpies weren’t to be denied and moments later they scored again.

A 30-yard free-kick from Ludlam left Peters motionless as the ball sailed into the top right-hand corner of the net.

Penzance continued the second-half in similar fashion to the first with with Harrington, starting his first game since September after a long injury lay-off, creating a number of chances for the home strikers.

However, Westgarth and Vercesi were wasteful upfront and should have put the league leaders further ahead before the home side had another effort disallowed for a push on Peters.

City's youngsters did battle but it always looked likely that Penzance were going to score more and they did through Westgarth's 63rd minutes header and Miller's close-range effort in injury-time