Truro City second away win of calendar year with St Albans

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

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 19th 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 13th 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.

City: Hamon, Palmer, Adelsbury, Harrison, Riley-Lowe, Dean, Brett, Sullivan (Porter, 65), Law, Harvey, Neal. Subs not used: Melhado, Sanders, Rooney St Albans: Johnson, Wiltshire (Weiss, 60), Brown, Smith, Rasulo (Mensah, 75), Jeffers, Banton, Clark, Hutchinson (James, 75), Francis-Clark, Burger. Subs not used: Bowry, Blackman.