IMPRESSIVE TRURO UP THEIR GAME AND SHOW WHY THEY WILL BE FANCIED THIS SEASON

Cirencester Town 2

Truro City 5

This may in the end have been the expected result against a Truro team fielding a midfield dominated by three experienced ex-professionals. But Cirencester gave them a good contest. Until they were taken apart by a very good goal early in the second half, they had gone close with three chances to set beside the two first half goals that they netted.

Without Gary Thorne in the heart of the defence, out because of work commitments, Ciren fielded Andy Minturn beside Kes Metitiri at the back. Even when they were close to being overrun in the second half they stuck manfully to their task and would have been disappointed, together with keeper Tom King, to have conceded two avoidable goals late in each half.

The difference between the teams was in the end the ability of the Truro midfield to control, pass and move and set up the runs and possession of an impressively mobile Truro front line. But at the start, playing an adventurous 3 – 5 – 2 line up, Truro were hesitant and disorganised at the back and were several times taken to bits by a Ciren team who were more than up for the challenge.

After an early scare when Andrew Taylor pinged a low cross for the far post which was just too far ahead of the plunging Andrew Watkins and Scott Walker, Ciren had much the better of the play in a frantically high tempo game. Julian Alsop lost his marker on a free kick after 12 minutes to meet the ball and send it looping just past the far post with former Plymouth, Exeter and Torquay 'keeper Martin Rice out of position and flapping helplessly.

Minutes later Lee Spalding won a solid tackle against Marcus Martin the sparky, mobile ex Plymouth and Exeter midfielder. Steve Davies picked up his on the deck, crisp, infield pass and surged beyond two attempted tackles. Adam Mahdi immediately checked-out and then beat Barry McConnell, an Exeter City veteran with over 200 appearances, for pace to race into the huge gap up the left. The pass was on to send him clear as Davies set himself in the centre circle only for his studs to slip on the greasy surface and miscue the final ball.

Minturn was not only first to the ball at the back for Ciren but calmly finding his midfield in space with his passes. Sending Nathan Haisley surging beyond Joe Broad, his pass wide left to Matt Williams was expertly relayed back inside where Julian Alsop had made himself space off Jake Ash. From 20 yards he set and placed his shot for the top corner. It was but half a yard off target and allowed Martin to get up and just tip the ball over the top.

The Truro manager was going bananas on the sideline and starting to berate the ref as his team began to concede free kicks with a series of off the ball and before the ball nudges and baulks. It kept the pressure on Ash and Rice neither of whom was coping well with the changes of pace and angles of runs by Alsop and Williams.

Andy Robertson and Nathan Haisley in midfield were making themselves first to the ball in front of Broad and Matthew Hockley, with Mr McCarthy screaming at the dilatory Scott Walker to get himself back and put the cover on to protect the exposed Tom Smith on the left side of the Truro back three. The pressure told. After Rice had just managed to tip an Alsop header from a Davies driven cross just over the top, Ciren scored from the corner on 18 minutes.

Kes Metitiri lost Joe Broad to nod goalwards from 12 yards. Deflected wide, Julian Alsop who had been hovering beyond the far post moved quickest, retrieved the ball and expertly lobbed it back in. Matt Williams plunged in front of keeper Rice and Ash to deflect the ball up again.

Nathan Haisley was charging in to throw himself at the loose ball, fumbled horribly by Rice as he tried to retrieve and suddenly the ball was in the back of the net with Nathan, skipper for the first time in place of Gary Thorne, delighted and racing back to the centre circle.

For 10 minutes, Ciren battled hard and effectively to contain Truro who were now raising their game with Martin, Broad and Hockley expertly collecting, passing and moving in a bewildering blur of space finding and first time control. Inevitably, at that pace, the ref was having a hard time deciding what was a clean tackle and what was dodgy.

In my opinion, he got it wrong on 28 minutes. Andy Minturn beat Stewart Yetton to an offcued ground pass and hooked the ball away before the forward fell over his legs. Maybe it was too quick for the official, maybe he thought Minno had his boot a bit off the deck.

Either way, it was a free kick about 20 yards out, central position. Ciren lined up, Scott Walker set himself and sent in an absolute peach aimed to dip just inside the top right corner and doing just that. It was a sickener to concede to 1 -1 but you cannot deny it was a quality strike.

Truro now showed different class. Nathan and Andy were being bypassed constantly in midfield. The Ciren defence was under so much pressure from the runs of Watkins and Yetton that they had all on to cope with the marauding support runs by Marcus Martin and needed Nathan to set himself just in front of them to contain him.

Broad and Hockley, both with extensive League experience, were showing they had not lost the desire to play a good game. Regaining possession with ominous ease from the clearances they were feeding Taylor and Walker out wide with a stream of accurate, well angled passes. On 38 minutes a set of quick passes up the right ended with Martin laying back to Taylor on the run at the angle of the box.

His low driven cross deflected up off a defender and Yetton was clear 10 yards out. Tom King did well to get a strong hand to his low, fierce drive but could not prevent Stewart Yetton following up to bundle the rebound from the post over the line.

Much to their credit, Ciren girded their loins, made sure of their passes and were rewarded as Alsop and Williams worked manfully to make sure the forward passes stuck. Adam Mahdi had been starved of possession so far, with the passes aimed for him miscued with disappointing frequency. But Andy Robertson stuck to his guns, playing with admirable calm and now making sure, helped by Mahdi reading the play and giving him more space in which to hit the target.

One, two and then three runs and crosses ended on 40 minutes with Alsop running across Ash to connect and loop in a header that Rice did marvellously well to tip over. Next attack, Lee Spalding again sent Steve Davies away and when Smith dropped him Alsop connected with the free kick to send the ball looping back across goal. Again, Rice flapped, fumbled and both Andy Minturn and Williams pounced with Matt Williams getting the final touch for a deserved 2 -2.

Within a minute Ciren conceded badly. Loss of concentration lost the ball in the centre circle, a quick ganging up on the right left Ben Pugh outgunned and just not able to get to the ball early enough to prevent Taylor sending what looked like an optimistic pass across the edge of the area. It seemed as if there was nowt on with Watkins and Yetton nowhere near the ball, though Broad was a blur as he scampered in to try and collect on the left.

Tom King had also come to try and collect, was bypassed and Joe Broad instantly connected with the outside of his right boot from the angle of the area to send the ball looping up, hit the bar, bounce and evade the desperately diving King to cross the line for a sickening 2 – 3.

On 44 minutes Ciren were again applying pressure at the other end. When Matt Williams collected and spun in the box Ash was rash and dived in. It was a soft penalty to concede, met with furious protests with Mr McCarthy leading the chorus and matched by the antics on the field.

It might have been distracting but Matt Williams does not let that get to him. But he would have been disappointed to get slightly under his placed kick giving Rice, who had guessed correctly, the chance to block his rising piledriver with Walker doing the right thing, backing up the shot from the edge of the box and hooking the loose ball away.

If that was a blow, the way in which Truro set about dismantling Ciren in the second half was just painful. Broad and Martin now started to play with the same urgency and touch as Hockley, who had been bossing it for Truro in their purple patch in the first half. They ganged up on Robertson and Haisley and allowed them nary a touch. And young Taylor was a blur of support running against the Ciren left flank.

Yetton and Watkins upped both the accuracy of their touch-off passes, helped by some sublimely placed and weighted passes up to them. More significantly they were now both running angles that constantly took them on the blindside of the defender nearest to them and then peeling off to drop back, collect, pass and move again.

On 55 minutes the Ciren defence was demolished. Ben Pugh was expertly sucked out of position on his flank, the ball switched back inside and then sent back by Hockley where Watkins had filled the space on the right. Andy Minturn was beaten by the pass beyond him, slowing beautifully for collection by Watkins, but he wisely chose not to dive in. A red card in that situation would have been the inevitable result.

Watkins looked up, Stewart Yetton was checking out to come inside, timed his break expertly to leave Kes Metitiri stranded and first timed from 10 yards past Tom King. Good goal, no argument, and something that every team practices to destruction but is still delighted to score.

Not an hour gone and Truro were now bossing it. Ciren chased and covered manfully, and put on fresh legs with Adam Heath in place of Adam Mahdi to see if the by now comfortable 3 at the back for Truro could be ruffled.

It only happened once when a neat, and pacy, interchange between Spalding – Robertson – Davies and back to Robertson sent the midfielder surging into a gap on the edge of the box to fire in a cracker on the run that Rice did well to reach at full stretch and tip over.

Ten minutes later a by now weary Robertson was replaced by Harry Etheridge, Steve Davies collected a yellow when he was first in and won a midfield challenge with Hockley pulling out. It was feeling as if not only were Ciren now weary but that the man in black had finally allowed the Truro manager to ref the match.

There was no need. Truro were now passing, running and interchanging space as if it was a practice match though Ciren, even though they were now not keeping enough possession to worry the Truro back line, were not going to let them pass. Tom King was cool, calm and collected in dealing with everything coming in including a superb stop on 70 minutes when another perfect cross arrowed in to be met full blooded from 16 yards by Watkins.

Though, to their credit, Andy Minturn and Kes Metitri were making sure that the pocket rockets whizzing up to the edge of the Ciren box were contained enough for there to be only two more shots on target, both ably pouched by a well positioned King.

Sideline comment was that Ciren were not cutting out the passes to the Truro flanks and by playing too deep were never trapping the attack into offsides. And that was why our only attacking ploy now was a hopeful punt upfield to try and get something off Alsops aeriel prowess.

Maybe so. It perhaps failed to appreciate that with the midfield chasing shadows and all on to contain the Truro buzzing, the defenders were now in a they shall not pass mindset. And not seeing any midfielders on for a pass out when they had retrieved the ball. That's the way it is when you've been under the cosh for a solid 30 minutes. And that was what was happening.

Oggy Hunt came on for the final 20 minutes to replace a hobbling Davies. He did enough to ruffle Ash but when he was then whacked off the ball late on was somehow only yellowed when he retaliated. Maybe the ref had recognised that Mr McCarthy had somehow missed the original foul and had failed to instruct him. Or maybe Oggy had merely been disrespectful. Either way, it was a bizarre situation.

Minutes to go, for whatever reason the ref decided that a Spalding tackle was unfair and Ciren conceded another poor goal, letting the cross ball bounce, rebound, come off Tom King and Jake Ash left free on the line to bury it gleefully on 88 minutes. Not arguing about the result but disappointed that at the end of both halves Ciren had conceded avoidable strikes to make the score line look like a right thrashing when over the whole piece it had been maybe not quite that.

But, you can't deny 2 – 5 was not nice. One thing we do know. The players will have learned from this and will focus even more carefully on making sure that when they do have the ball they use it well.

Cirencester: Tom King, Lee Spalding, Ben Pugh, Andy Minturn, Kes Metitiri, Andy Robertson [Harry Etheridge 67], Steve Davies Y69 [Oggy Hunt 71 Y87], Nathan Haisley (c) Y86, Julian Alsop, Matt Williams, Adam Mahdi [Adam Heath 58]

sub: Steve Robertson

Truro: Martin Rice, Barry McConnell, Marcus Martin [Matt Bye 81], Tom Smith, Jake Ash, Joe Broad, Andrew Taylor, Matt Hockley (c), Stewart Yetton, Andrew Watkins, Scott Walker [Martin Watts 89]

subs: Chris Reski, Shane Tolley, Jason Chapman g/k

Ref: Mr M Rowley, Reading Did not, in my opinion, ref this one with sufficient authority. All refs will get called in a match but there is no need for the ref to justify his decisions. Explain what and why but not in the way this guy seemed to do, though some of them were sufficiently puzzling as almost to invite a query from a bewildered player. He overruled his linos on a lot and their body language was fascinating.

Att: 201 – somebody who shall remain nameless was caught up in the downpour half an hour before the start and failed to go though the turnstiles. Sorry, Kathie.

We'd been told by Truro that over 70 were expected but in the end it was about 15 loyal and vocal fans behind the goal, a big noisy bunch in the Directors box and a few sprinkled somewhat more inconspicuously in the main stand.

A lot of the Ciren regulars had made it up the hill, including a full set of Muppetts for this one. The mood in the Clubhouse afterwards was a bit doom and gloom but in truth that may have been an over-reaction.

That was a good Truro team, taking advantage of our mistakes ruthlessly and turning the screw when it was needed. We never expected to win every match but I would agree with the doom merchants that it was disappointing to let in those two avoidable goals.

Ciren MoM: got a few hollow laughs on this one but those that voted, even though at times they were frantically baling out as the ship was sinking, put Tom King and Andy Minturn in the frame with Minno voted by one just behind Kes Metitiri. Well done, big men, your grit was appreciated.