It’s time for another dose of Climbing the Ladder! This is October’s action, starting with our cup replay with Boston United!
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Well, almost starting with the Boston United game. Before that we found out who we would be getting in the 4th Qualifying Round, you know, providing we get there! Cambridge City away – Definitely winnable.
BOSTON UNITED VS TRURO CITY – FA CUP 3RD QUALIFYING ROUND REPLAY
We bottled it. We were 10 minutes away from a win in the original tie, and we bottled it then. We went ahead twice here, and we bottled it again. Ben Harding played really well, scored a beauty of a free-kick to put us ahead on 33 minutes, and then put us back in the lead on 60 minutes after Dylan Cogill levelled the tie. Midfielders Adam Chapman and Ashley Hemmings scored two quick-fire goals within 5 minutes of our second to take the game away from us though, and for us it’s goodbye FA Cup, we’ll see you next year.
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TRURO CITY VS HAMPTON AND RICHMOND – VANARAMA NATIONAL SOUTH
I don’t like this 4-4-2, we look completely toothless, and it may not be down to the shape, but I’m just not sold on it. I tried bringing in the slightly more pacey Niall Thompson on the right hand side, hoping he could get to the byline and get balls in for the strikers, but it just didn’t happen. He didn’t play badly, he just didn’t produce anything, it was his first game of the season though! I’ll tell you who did play badly, the strikers. I’m losing patience with Tyler Harvey, he’s such a good player at this level, but I never see him have a really good game, and when he scores it’s from a penalty, I don’t think he has one from open play yet. Despite all my moaning, we did take the lead here through an own goal from Hampton right-back Jay Smith. Unfortunate for him sure, but we’ll take it. Aaaaaand it’s gone. The lead that is. 5 minutes later Harry Crawford tied the scores with an absolutely beautiful finish, curling in from the edge of the area. I may not be happy with it, but I can still appreciate it.
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BRAINTREE TOWN VS TRURO CITY – VANARAMA NATIONAL SOUTH
3-5-2. Is it the answer? Maybe, I guess we’ll find out. It sneaked us a win here, in the tightest game I’ve had so far at Truro, surely. We went behind early, Philip Roberts scoring for Braintree after 7 minutes. Jake Watkins grabbed himself and us an equalizer after quarter of an hour, and the game stayed even until the 33rd minute, where winger Stuart Wilkin put Braintree ahead for the second time. This is where we get to River Allen, our holding midfielder in the 5. This may well be the best 2 minutes of River’s career*. (*I’m not counting the 15 minutes of half-time!) On the brink of half-time we were awarded a penalty, and with Tyler Harvey not on the pitch or even the bench (he doesn’t fit the 3-5-2 and some time out of the team may put a rocket up him) River smashed home. 2-2 at half-time. 46th minute, free-kick about 30 yards out, River Allen stands over it. I didn’t know River could take free-kicks, he didn’t even look sure, but my god, he nailed it. Over the wall, dipping just enough to fly into the top corner. Perfect. That should have given us all of the momentum, and really allowed us to push on, but it went the other way, and just before the hour we were level again at 3-3, Stuart Wilkin grabbing his second of the game. We’ve conceded a few late goals this season, but this one went our way, as Jordan Copp, shoe-horned into the team as a left midfielder to offer a bit of defensive cover, popped up to make it 4-2 and send us home with all 3 points.
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At this point, some transfer activity, and I have to say it was a complete bolt from the blue. We received an offer for attacking midfielder Noah Keats, who’s on a non-contract deal and therefore can negotiate with anyone. The team that came in? Was it a divisional rival, or even a National North side, operating at the same level but not coming up against us? No. Fort Lauderdale. Somehow, they’ve managed to find Noah, down in sunny Cornwall, and want to take him to the States, for what has to be a better quality of life. I decided against offering Noah a deal to stay, he started the season well, and grabbed a couple of goals, but he hasn’t played a lot of football since and we can definitely cope without him should he go.
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WEALDSTONE VS TRURO CITY – VANARAMA NATIONAL SOUTH
We didn’t make any changes for this game, why would we? We won and the system looked okay, so let’s go again. Jake Watkins is enjoying the 3-5-2, in fact all of the first 11 are. A hat-trick for Jake plus goals from Lewis Guy and Callum Rose with a reply from Elliot Benyon giving us an astounding 5-1 away win. Wealdstone were in the play-offs before this game, looking to make an assault on the top of the table, but we absolutely battered them. The amount of chances we’re creating with this shape is such a huge improvement over the 4-4-2 and even the diamond we settled on at the start of the season, and we’re looking good.
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After the Wealdstone match we found out that we had been drawn at home to Regional Divisons side Walton Casuals in the FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round. We were given the choice of settling the game in extra time if required, we declined as I’m confident of a win and I’m not sure the boys can handle 120 minutes!
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TRURO CITY VS BOGNOR REGIS – VANARAMA NATIONAL SOUTH
Spoke waaaaay too soon. The most damp of damp squibs this game, I barely saw a highlight. We actually weren’t as toothless as we have been at times this season, we still had some shots on goal but they were so speculative that we never looked like scoring, even after Bognor Regis went down to 10 men on the hour. Tyler Harvey was really, really disappointing again, he played up front today as an Advanced Forward, by no means his preferred role, but he can comfortably do it, my coaches rate him as my best striker, and he isn’t even a striker! There’s just nothing about him though, I don’t see how he fits into this side. Maybe we should look to get something for him, maybe even in January?
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We end the month in 11th place, after going unbeaten in the league. We did lose to Boston in our cup replay which was disappointing, but we really picked up after that and hopefully this kind of form can continue. Who knows, maybe we could even push for a sneaky play-off push? Hmm maybe not, but we can try!
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So that’s it for October, a really strong month, something to build on hopefully. We’ll be back soon with another month’s action. Thanks for reading.
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