With oodles of time to fill before Football Manager 2026 sees the light of day, I was eager to take on another long-term FM24 save that wasn’t quite as intense as our ongoing Alphabet Challenge. I realised we’ve never started a series in the English non-league and fancied taking on a new long-term save.
In a recent FM guide article, we mentioned the fact that Cornwall is the largest county never to have a team compete in the English Football League. According to UK Population Data, the county is home to 568,210 people, which makes it the 40th most-populated in the country, and measures 1,375 square miles, which makes it the 13th largest.
However, no football club from Cornwall has ever made it out of non-league. So our objective is to change that by taking control of the only playable club from Cornwall in Football Manager. I considered running this as a youth academy save and/or only allowing ourselves to sign players from Cornwall. But, let’s be honest, that’s just not very fun and my favourite part of FM is discovering and signing players. So we’re going to rely on the club’s pretty mediocre youth academy while prioritising talented English youngsters and players who were born in Cornwall. So with no further ado, welcome to Truro! (And, for context, we began playing this series long before the club confirmed qualification from Vanarama South last weekend, which was amazing to see!)
Who Are Truro City FC?
Truro City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Truro, the UK’s southernmost city and the only city in Cornwall. Truro City was founded in 1889 and became a founding member of the Cornwall County Football Association. Its first game was a 7-1 win over Penzance, which was played at Truro School, and its first silverware followed in 1895, when it beat Launceston to life the Cornwall Senior Cup.
The club joined the Plymouth and District League in 1936, which led to it briefly being banned from the Cornwall Senior Cup, before becoming a founding member of the South Western League in 1951, which it won five times, including three successes in the 1990s. Significant financial issues followed in the 2000s, but new owners took control in 2004 with the goal of making Truro the first Cornish team to play in the National League. In 2006, Truro were promoted to the Western League Division One for the first time and won it at the first time of asking, only losing once all season. That season, 2006/07, was arguably the most successful in club history as it also won the FA Vase, beating AFC Totton 3-1 in the final – making it the first Cornish club to win a national trophy.
Truro consolidated their place in the seventh tier before winning the Southern League in 2011, which saw it promoted to the Conference South for the first time. They finished 14th in the first season at that level, but more financial issues soon arose that led to HMRC issuing a winding-up petition. The club filed for administration in August 2012, which led to a 10-point deduction and it seemed increasingly likely it would be expelled from the league and liquidated. However, a new ownership deal was reached in December and City were allowed to compete in the Southern League in 2013/14.
Truro returned to the sixth tier in 2014/15, beating St Neots Town in the playoff final. This time they fared a lot better, finishing 4th and losing to Maidstone in the playoff semis. However, they finished 19th, then 7th in 2018, a season in which they reached the FA Cup first round for the first and only time, losing 3-1 at Charlton. But any positives were quickly forgotten as they were again relegated to the Southern League in 2019, only returning to the National League South in 2023, when a last-minute winner won the playoff final 3-2 against Bracknell Town. In November 2023, Truro City was purchased by owner Eric Perez, who also owns Cornwall RLFC and previously owned Super League side Toronto Wolfpack.
Enter our new protagonist Perran Trevelyan – named after Cornwall’s patron saint, St. Piran, and coming from the strong Trevelyan family heritage. His mission will be to see Truro City become the first Cornish club to reach the English fifth tier and then the Football League, and, from there, who knows.
Truro City FC In Football Manager 2024
The Truro board expects Trevelyan to achieve a top-half finish in National League South and has plans in progress to build a new stadium. The Tinners currently play at the new 3,000-capacity Truro Sports Hub, which is technically in Threemilestone, just west of Truro, and is supported by poor infrastructure of 5 training facilities, 4 youth facilities and youth recruitment and 3 junior coaching. The club has £10,600 in the bank, no transfer budget, and a weekly wage budget of £5,530, nearly all of which is being spent.
Trevelyan’s first mission was to create a scouting filter that allowed him to discover players from Cornwall. So he filtered players by every Cornish town, including the major settlements Redruth, Falmouth, St Austell, Truro, Newquay and Penzance. At the start of the game, that resulted in one player who was interested in Truro City and five players in total, which portrays the size of the task facing the new manager. So Trevelyan signed the only interested Cornish, winger Billy Craske (who is terrible).
The best players at Truro are winger Jaze Kabia, centre back Pharrell Johnson and Sam Sanders, left back Ryan Law, and midfielders Scott Burgess, Tyler Harvey and Dan Rooney. But a key player will be 38-year-old club legend striker and assistant manager Stewart Yetton, who’s the all-time record goalscorer with 159 mostly scored in the lower leagues between 2005 and 2013, including scoring 42 in 38 in 2006/7 and 40 in 40 in 2007/8. And, for what it’s worth, Craske is the only Cornish first-teamer.
Trevelyan settled on a fairly straightforward 4-5-1 that aimed to limit old man Yetton’s running while creating decent chances for him in the box.
The Cornish Crusade Begins
Some good news for Trevelyan was the bookies fancied Truro to finish 6th in National League South with 16/1 title odds. Relegated Boreham Wood and Dorking Wanderes are 4/9 and 8/15 favourites followed by Welling (9/2), Worthing (13/2) and Hornchurch.
Truro faced a tough start to the season with away days at the two favourites Boreham Wood and Dorking. But they started well as Harvey’s penalty earned a point on the opening day at Boreham Wood then only lost 1-0 at Dorking. Those games were split by the first game at Truro Sports Hub, in which 5ft 6in sub striker Andrew Neal’s late goal downed Chelmsford 2-1. The tactic was looking very solid in the early days as Burgess scored the only goal at home to Tonbridge Angels and Neal scored the only goal at Enfield, while Kabia bagged a hat trick to inspire a 3-1 win at rivals Weston-super-Mare.
However, the elephant in the room was Yetton failing to score or get an assist in the first 7 league games. He was dropped for Neal, who didn’t prove to be much better. A good run continued through to getting hammered 5-1 at home by Hemel Hempstead in mid-September, but Yetton finally got his first league goal at the 14th time of asking in a 2-1 victory at Chippenham. Truro continued to overperform, heading into a busy Christmas period in an unexpected 2nd place, just 2 points behind Boreham Wood.
A resurgent Yetton scored both in a 2-1 win at lowly Chelmsford before the ultimate test – two home games in three days against the big two. First up, a Kabia double crushed Boreham Wood 4-1 to send Truro top of the league for the first time, but they immediately relinquished it on New Year’s Day with a slightly unlucky 1-0 defeat to Dorking.
Cash-Boosting Cup Run
The solid league start was backed up by a good FA Cup run, beating Winchester 5-1, Lewes 2-1 and National League side Woking 3-1 to reach the first round for only the second time. They got probably the worst draw possible at home to Reading, but Kabia shocked the League One side with a brilliant opener just before the break. Reading struck back, but that proved to be their only shot on target, and Truro earned a potentially lucrative replay. Indeed, the away game saw Truro take home £58k in gate receipts despite an inevitable 4-1 defeat. However, Truro’s FA Trophy run ended early with a 5-0 defeat at National League side Sutton.
Unexpected Promotion Battle
Truro kicked on in the new year but their lofty position began to get to the players’ heads as they lost at Hemel Hempstead and then drew three games on the bounce. But Harvey’s first-half strike was enough to defeat mid-table Chippenham and his penalty edged a 2-1 win at struggling Maidstone. A 2-2 at home to Worthing secured at least a playoff spot before a 3-1 defeat at Aveley, while Dorking thrashed Boreham Wood 5-0 to really tighten up the title race.
Two big Easter weekend games saw Kabia score both in a 2-0 win at home to 8th-place Eastbourne before losing at Slough two days later. Going into their final three games, Truro had a 4-point lead over Dorking with Boreham Wood a further 2 points back and Slough another 6 points back, but the other three sides had a game in hand. But those games in hand were played prior to the final three games, and Dorking lost 2-0 at Weston, Boreham Wood wpn 3-2 at Enfield and Slough won 3-1 at Bath. That meant Truro took a 3-point lead over Boreham Wood into the final three games.
Game 1 – Welling United (21st, away): The run-in began at relegation-battling Welling, who performed valiantly and looked to be nicking a point. But Truro dominated by 17 shots to 6 and got their rewards as Kabia earned a late penalty that Harvey calmly converted for a 2-1 win. Elsewhere, Boreham Wood won a ludicrous match 6-5 at home to Hornchurch, Dorking beat Farnborough 1-0 and Slough beat Chesham 4-1. The victory confirmed Truro’s best-ever league finish, surpassing the 4th place in 2016, but they had their eyes set even higher.
Game 2 – Torquay United (8th, home): A tricky final home game saw Truro entertain former Football League side and Devon rivals Torquay. A win here would virtually guarantee the league title and promotion. They got a helping hand after 11 minutes as a terrible backpass put Yetton through on goal to easily convert, ending an incredible 23-hour goal drought! Kabia was unlucky to see a goal ruled offside but the lead was soon doubled in fortuitous fashion as Harvey’s shot took a huge deflection. Torquay got a late goal back but Trevelyan went defensive and saw the game out.
Truro City were Champions of National League South!
The streets of Truro were packed as Trevelyan and his players celebrated their unexpected league title. The legendary Yetton had cemented his hero status despite his overall lack of goals. Truro finished with a 2-2 at St Albans, which saw them win the league by 1 point from Dorking, finishing on 92 points after 27 wins, 11 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 78 and conceding a league-low 46. Dorking joined them in promotion, beating Boreham Wood 1-0 in the playoff final. Kabia was named league player of the year, despite not ranking high on any of the individual stats, and Trevelyan won manager of the year.
First Truro Youth Intake Delivers Homegrown Hope
Trevelyan certainly hadn’t expected a promotion push in his first season, but his defence-first approach worked a treat. Their solid backline made up for strikers who couldn’t score, led by Yetton managing just 9 goals in 51 games! Kabia made up for that with 29 goals and 11 assists from the left wing, Harvey scored 21 with 9 assists from centre midfield, Burgess scored 9 with a club-high 17 assists from the right, Rooney chipped in with 13 assists, and Neal managed just 7 goals in 42.
The first intake of Trelawny’s reign delivered a potential first homegrown star in Truro-born Sammy Raybould, who comes in as the best right-back at the club. Raybould made his debut on the final day, becoming the youngest ever Truro player ahead 16 years 133 days. He’s joined by fellow Truro-born midfielder Alex Noice (noice!), Truro-born, half Nigerian center back James Aliyu and Guinean/German/English striker Ousmane Conté.
Realistically, none of these players are likely to be National League standard and Truro City faced a near-impossible task to survive in their first-ever season in the English fifth tier. Could Trevelyan pull off another miracle in his second season at Truro? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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