Truro City (1) 2 Harvey 39 (pen) Kabia 90+4
Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Leighton 51
Attendance: 1,550
Admission: Pass
Mileage: 686/2,368
New Ground: 387
A marathon journey, eight hours worth of heavy traffic to the Premier Inn at St Austell and a less troubled return journey of six hours but with a glum face after a 94th minute winning goal for the hosts. Truro City's new ground, three miles out of town is a work in progress. They have all the basics and a whole expanse in which to expland. If I ever have the will to return it will be interesting to see the progress.
Tonbridge Angels suffered 94th minute heartache as their hosts seized on an error to deny the visitors a well deserved point and send their hardy band of supporters home with something for their monumental effort.
Jay Saunders commented on the late, late goal after the match: “I’m gutted to be coming away with nothing, to be honest, I felt we were good enough to earn something from it, but, decision making, the decision at the end, Ryan knows that he should spin the ball and he hasn’t and tried to make a pass that gets cut out and they break and score. I thought it was harsh on us, but that’s this league, it’s unforgiving and we have to pick ourselves up.”
The Angels’ supporters, and the team coach, had endured journeys of nightmare proportions as a M5 lorry fire and half-term traffic on Friday hampered the trip to Truro, the westernmost tip of the National League South season.
Bright Cornish sunshine greeted those supporters to the new Truro City Stadium where Jay Saunders made three changes to the side that beat Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday. With Toby Steward being recalled by his parent club Portsmouth, Jay moved quickly to replace him with Matthew Rowley, on loan from Reading. Crossley Lema returned to the starting XI after suspension for Tariq Hinds and Mo Dabre replaced the injured Jeremy Santos.
Neither side exactly sprinted out of the blocks and it was a quarter hour gone before Rowley made his first, comfortable, save in an Angels shirt from a Tyler Harvey header. Moments later, a cross from the left from Liam Vincent found the head of Jason Adigun, but he was slightly underneath it and the ball cleared the bar.
Vincent was proving the Angels most potent outlet and two crosses in a minute needed the intervention of the Truro goalkeeper, Dan Lavercombe.
On 29 minutes, Rowley gave a first glimpse that he will be a more than capable replacement for Steward when he acrobatically turned over the crossbar a shot from 20 yards by Harvey.
The first half spun in the space of 60 seconds after 38 minutes. A Vincent cross to the far post was headed back into the centre of the goal by Adigun to Noel Leighton, who headed over from close range. The ball was quickly moved to the other end which saw Dom Johnson-Fisher move to take a pass just inside the 18 yard box before Lema slid into a tackle which brought the winger down.
Harvey, the league’s leading goalscorer, confidently struck the spot kick into the corner despite the best efforts of Rowley.
To go in two behind at the break would have been wholly unjust but Tonbridge had to survive an effort from Harvey that was blocked by Ronnie Nelson and another from Johnson-Fisher that cleared the bar.
At the break, an injury to Vincent necessitated his substitution with Ryan Hanson.
The Angels were level after six minutes of the second half when a superb cross field pass, left to right, was brilliantly collected by Lema who drove inside of his marker before letting fly with a shot that was parried by Lavercombe, but only into the path of Leighton who smashed it home from eight yards.
The visitors parity was rescued, on 57 minutes, by the width of the post that was struck with a shot from 25 yards by Will Dean and five minutes later, a shot from Johnson-Fisher was wide.
Tonbridge seemed to a weathered the storm as the game drifted towards an added time of four minutes and, in fact, looked as likely to grab a winner as their hosts.
But, in the final moments, a clearance from the Truro goalkeeper saw Nelson win a headed challenge with the ball landing at the feet of Hanson in the centre circle, who tried to move the ball on but his pass was wayward and two passes saw substitute Jaze Kabia clear one-on-one with Rowley to tuck the ball into the corner.
There remained a few seconds for the Angels to throw everything forward including goalkeeper Rowley for a corner after a Shields effort had been deflected wide by the goalkeeper but it was not too be and the long journey home began reflecting on what might have been.
Jay Saunders summed up: “Defeats away are fine lines, we are not going away and getting battered by teams, it’s just little individual errors that are costing us at the moment and that’s what we have got to cut out but it is something I’m sure we will put right.”
No comments:
Post a Comment