Cornwall’s love of football was exploding as Truro City, the county’s first-ever Football League club, survived with relative ease in their first season in League Two. Manager Perran Trevelyan now had to try and take his team to the next level to push towards the top half of the division.
Tycoon owner Richard Mukherjee provided some assistance with a £1.3m cash injection, giving Trevelyan a £395k transfer budget and a £37k weekly wage budget. That was boosted by Middlesbrough signing young striker Emini Roscoe for a new record sale of £250k, Burton then paid the same fee for backup full back Jordan Hellawell, and Portsmouth beat that record by paying up to £360k for midfielder David Morris and sent him back on loan for free.
He splashed out on his first cash signing after five years at the club, signing left back Livesey McIlwaine for a club-record £11,750 from Yeovil. He then smashed the wage structure with a bit of a coup, signing former Man City midfielder James McAtee, who’d been without a club for over a year and was immediately worth up to £15m! He added attacking depth in another former City player Jaden Heskey and snapped up Liverpool centre back Roger James and striker Charlie Barton on free transfers.
Trevelyan didn’t see any need to change from the 4-1-3-2 that’s worked nicely the last two seasons. McAtee, who’s the oldest player at the club aged 25, slots into the advanced playmaker role with Morris dropping in as the holding midfielder.
Second Season In The Football League
The bookies have enhanced their expectations, tipping Truro to finish 14th with title odds of 20/1, Relegated Leyton Orient and Exeter City are the title favourites at 4/7 and 9/2 followed by Bradford (9/2), Chesterfield (5/1), Southend and Wimbledon (9/1) and promoted Rochdale (11/1). And Jaden Williams is the fourth favourite for top goalscorer at 12/1.
Truro came into the season with a few attacking injuries as they kicked off at Crewe in late July. But the backup strikeforce of Finlay Cross-Adair and debutant Heskey scored a minute either side of halftime alongside centre back Chukwuebuka Wakili’s header and midfielder Owen Lunt’s strike in a superb 4-1 victory. They were equally good in their first home game as Wakili opened the scoring again and Heskey and Lunt both scored again to down Stevenage 3-0. The excitement was tempered by a tame 1-0 defeat at Tranmere, but Heskey and the returning Williams secured a 2-0 win over Hartlepool before last season’s draw curse returned with three on the bounce.
A week of home games saw them defeat Cheltenham and Grimsby before McAtee’s first goal inspired a 2-0 win at home to Walsall. He also scored the only goal at Notts County as Truro surged into 2nd place after 11 games and hit top form as Williams scored twice in a 5-1 thrashing of Fleetwood. A 10-game unbeaten run ended with a 2-1 defeat at 3rd-place Swindon but they bounced back in style, winning four on the bounce and Heskey’s brace at Doncaster took them top of the league for the first time. Truro became draw happy again but a really strong December sent them into the new year sitting pretty in 2nd place with a 14-point gap to 4th.
Back On The Cup Runs
Truro entered the Carabao Cup for the second time and had goalkeeper Tom Wooster to thank for edging past both Bradford and Championship side Birmingham on penalties in the first and second rounds, before Williams and Lunt downed Hartlepool 2-0. That teed up a fourth round trip to a strong Crystal Palace, with players like Khephren Thuram and Maurits Kjaergaard, and they unsurprisingly lost 3-1.
In the FA Cup, Williams scored both in a 2-0 win at Woking before a 1-0 win over Yeovil. That teed up a third round tie at home to Wrexham and a solid defensive performance, coupled with a Wakili header from a corner, secured a 1-0 win. Annoyingly, another poor draw saw them again get mid-table Premier League side Brentford away and they lost 2-0.
Chasing Promotion From League Two
2029 began with a bore 0-0 draw at home to Wimbledon before Oyetunde ended one of his customary goal droughts, this time a ludicrous 18-match streak, to nick a 2-1 win at Rochdale. James’ first senior goal nicked a win over Wayne Rooney’s Leyton Orient but a tired team eventually lost back-to-back games 2-1 at home to mid-table Morecambe and at 6th-place Chesterfield. That developed into a little sticky patch with successive 0-0s at Cheltenham and Grimsby with both Heskey and Williams on huge goal droughts.
But both ended them thanks to pinpoint passes by midfielder Anthony Payne in a more confident 3-0 victory over Swindon, backed up by another 3-0 win at home to Bromley. A 3-1 win at Bradford secured at least a playoff place, before Heskey scored both in a 2-2 with 4th-place Crewe, which kept Truro 9 points, and repeated the feat in a 2-0 win over Tranmere that ignited their title hopes. Truro had a game in hand on leaders Southend, trailing them by 4 points while just needing 2 points to guarantee promotion with five games remaining – including a trip to Southend.
Game 1 – York City (9th, away): Truro’s title hopes took a hit as they put in a poor display, somehow conceded the first two shots and lost 2-1 at York. Southend beat Fleetwood 2-1 to move 7 points clear while Crewe drew at Doncaster so Truro just needed a point to go up.
Game 2 – Colchester United (18th, home): The promotion party kicked off in style as Wakili’s header and loanee striker Jordan Agbor secured a 2-1 win over Colchester.
Truro drew at Hartlepool before losing the title decider 1-0 at Southend and wrapped up the campaign with a relative local derby and drew 1-1 with Exeter. That saw them secure 2nd place on 94 points, which was a record-high total without winning the title, after 27 wins, 13 draws and 6 defeats, scoring 80 and impressively conceding just 31. Heskey was somehow the top scorer in the league with 19 in 45, McAtee had the second-best average rating of 7.23 and won PFA League 2 Player of the Year, and Wooster kept the second-most clean sheets with 18.
The Rise Of Truro Continues
Truro’s rise continued to capture the attention of the nation as, in their second season in League Two, Cornwall’s only Football League representative tasted promotion to English tier three. That means Trevelyan has led the club to the highest finish in its history in all of his six seasons. This season, they had two former Man City players to thank as Heskey led the way with 20 goals in 53 games, but his performances tailed off at the end of the season, and McAtee topped the assists chart with 11 and set a new club record average rating of 7.19. Williams’ performances dropped off a little with 16 goals in 49 games, but the impressive Wakili was superb again with 14 goals from centre back.
Truro also had another solid intake that delivered three supposed elite talents led by centre back Frankie Edwards and midfielders Antonio Vincent and George Bartley – as well as a random Panamanian winger Gabriel Cordoba.
Trevelyan would have his work cut out to survive in League One, especially as star man McAtee wasn’t interested in renewing his contract and a huge clearout was coming in the summer. But recent history suggests his wheeler-dealer ability would help them over the line.
Could Truro survive in their first season in England’s third tier? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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