Welcome back to Climbing the Ladder! Strap in tight, it’s April, and it’s time to see where we’re going to finish this season!
Our thumping of Hemel Hempstead is still fresh in the board’s mind, as they continue to be very pleased with us performing at what has to be considered massively above our expectations. I just wish we could get a little bit more consistency. The squad are still in a good place, no massive increase in morale or support, but more importantly no decrease either.
So our final five games, and the run-in is very mixed. Weston-super-Mare and Hampton & Richmond are both incredibly tough games, ahead of us in the league and both away from home. Surely we need wins from all of the other three games against bottom half sides to give us even a chance of the play-offs?
WESTON-SUPER-MARE (5TH) VS TRURO CITY (7TH) – VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH
UNFORTUNATELY THE IMAGES FOR THIS MATCH WEREN’T ABLE TO BE USED 😦
We come into this one unchanged from our win over Hemel Hempstead, pretty self explanatory I’d say. Niall Thompson finds himself on the bench again, Danny Racchi is fit enough to start but I’d say he’s probably going to need to come off. The first half an hour was very, very scrappy, but very even, and then suddenly we found ourselves 2-0 down before half-time. Ash Kington and Leon Lobjoit scored twice in three minutes for the hosts, and I was not impressed. Half-time meant a switch of system, back to the 3-5-2 we have used a lot, and we looked far more dangerous, even pulling a goal back through River Allen to half the deficit. Unfortunately our pressure counted for nothing, as Dayle Grubb struck direct from a free-kick with nine minutes left to seal our fate and see us drop outside of the play-off places.
As the end of the season draws near, it’s always good to have a look at any potential ending deals, any players who could be grabbed on a free to improve the squad. I may have aimed slightly high here…
Who knows, one day somebody on this list could well play for Truro City, I don’t see it being this summer, however.
TRURO CITY (8TH) VS EAST THURROCK UNITED (17TH) – VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH
Personnel changes for this one only involve rotating the full-backs, Billy Palfrey and Connor Riley-Lowe coming in for Jordan Alawode-Williams and Jamie Richards. The only other change is a shift in role for Ben Harding in the centre of midfield, changing from a BWM to a DLP in an attempt to gain a measure of control over the game. We played okay here, not brilliant, but in a very even game we managed to snatch a huge victory. Noah Keats, off the bench at half-time, grabbing a goal to justify all of his re-training and the decision to chuck him in here playing a role he barely knows.
The last game wasn’t just massively important because of the vital win we secured, on a more personal note for Cody Cooke, it was a game he’ll never forget.
Whatever level you play at, to set an appearance level for a club by the age of 25 is a huge achievement, and will surely see Cody Cooke go down as a Truro City legend.
CHIPPENHAM TOWN (19TH) VS TRURO CITY (8TH) – VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH
Niall Thompson, making a rare start, for Danny Racchi is the only change for this one, we really need a win here. For a while in school I thought I might quite like to learn an instrument, maybe the drums. Sorry, I know that’s really not what you came here to read, but it’s what I was thinking about during the first half of this game, because it was so god damn dull. I actually didn’t see a highlight. Half-time brought a change to the 3-5-2 again, if we’re going to keep changing to this because of poor performances, why aren’t we just starting with it? Maybe because it didn’t really improve anything, we barely had a sniff and were looking like we would get a single point, which we didn’t really deserve. Queue the inevitable, a 94th minute winner from striker Norman Wabo, and a really damaging defeat.
With two games left, we sit two points outside of the play-offs. A win against Braintree, a side struggling, but with a shot at survival, would give us a chance going into the final day. That final clash is against top of the league Hampton & Richmond away though, and even an unlikely win there could easily not be enough. It’s looking like it won’t be our year, but is it even that much of a disappointment? Say we make the play-offs, we’re right up against it from the off finishing in 7th, and there’s no way we could survive next year if we managed to pull off the most amazing promotion. We won’t give up, we’ll fight to the end, but either way our season has already been a success.
TRURO CITY (8TH) VS BRAINTREE TOWN (20TH) – VANARAMA NATIONAL SOUTH
Despite it not helping in the last game, we do start here with the 3-5-2, with the slight adjustment of River Allen sitting deeper as a DM to allow Ben Harding and Cody Cooke to play slightly more attacking roles. A fairly routine win, and a good performance, especially going forward. We do look more threatening using this shape, maybe if we do okay against Hampton we’ll use the summer window to mould the squad around this system. An early own-goal from Jack James and a River Allen strike just before half-time sealed the win, only ruined slightly by Connor Riley-Lowe going off injured. Hopefully not a reoccurrence of his long-term setback.
HAMPTON AND RICHMOND (1ST) VS TRURO CITY (8TH) – VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH
Jordan Copp starting at wing-back in place of the injured Connor Riley-Lowe is the only change here, same system, let’s go and get them. Bang, Bang, Bang, let’s not. They may be the best team in the division this year, but there’s no excuse for how poor we were here. 5x more yellow cards than shots on target, absolutely pitiful going forward, AGAIN! Malachi Napa, Ricky German and Christian Jolley scored the goals, and the game was so disappointing from our point of view that my comment last game about moulding the squad to this system is now in doubt, if not completely irrelevant. Something to ponder.
So the season is over, and in the end we didn’t quite have enough for the play-offs. Despite being hugely frustrated at points, I’m immensely proud of what was achieved this season, with a side predicted to finish far, far lower than the 8th place we managed.
Next time we’ll have a review of the season just gone, looking at the season awards and a look at the squad’s stats, with a view to developing next season. Thanks for reading.
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