Truro City came close to a surprise playoff push in their first season in England’s tier three. But a tricky summer looked to be in store as manager Perran Trevelyan looked to restore the youth in his squad.
Veteran midfielders Ben Pearson and Joe Rothwell retired and fellow midfielder Conor Chaplin had unreasonable demands. Long-serving striker Jaden Williams left after 71 goals in 202 league games as he wasn’t close to League One standard, along with 11 more players being released. They also lost defender Chukwuebuka Wakili to Rotherham for a new record sale of £1.9m after he refused to sign a new contract then demanded to move to a bigger club (so joined one that finished below Truro last season). The Truro board also announced a new senior affiliate agreement with Premier League side West Ham United, which should allow them to take players on loan for free.
Trevelyan decided to invest the Wakili cash into improving the club’s training facilities and youth recruitment and went hunting for freebies yet again. The key signing of the summer was last season’s star striker Martin Luczak joining after leaving Liverpool. He was joined by his former teammate full back Danny Barlow, Man United midfielder Kaelen Thwaite, Manchester City’s 6ft 5in centre back Larry Molloy and striker Rian Judge and experienced backup goalkeeper Conor Hazard. And the new West Ham deal saw holding midfielder James Wood and Barbados international striker Dwayne Layne join on loan. Trevelyan also promoted homegrown midfielders Antonio Vincent, Derrick Aheebwa and Jordan Foyle.
The squad now contains six academy products – captain Sammy Raybould, who’s 5 games short of the all-time league appearances record, vice-captain Drew Myler and midfielders George Bartley, Vincent, Aheebwa and Foyle. The new-look midfield trio is fully homegrown and has a combined age of 53, Judge and Charlie Barton will fight it out to play alongside Luczak up front, and Roger James, Meyler and Molloy competing to partner Israel Agbaje at centre back. Trevelyan was a little concerned by the lack of experience in the side but had full faith in his youngsters to begin delivering on their potential.
Season Season In League One
This season looked set to be just as closely-fought as last season with Truro one of eight sides at 50/1 for the title – with the bookies putting them at the bottom of that list with a predicted finish of 23rd, only ahead of promoted Hartlepool. Relegated sides Hull City, Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town (4/5, Evens and 4/1) are title favourites along with Oxford (6/1), QPR (9/1) and Portsmouth (13/1).
For the first time in this save, Truro began the season with a home game. They welcomed QPR down to Cornwall and a solid defensive effort and Judge’s late debut goal off the bench earned a deserved 1-0 victory as he latched onto Vincent’s pass for a debut assist. There was more of the same at Bolton as Tom Wooster made seven saves before Bartley beat two men to curl in his first senior goal on 84 minutes. Truro hit the top of League One for the first time as Vincent’s 35-yard wondergoal led a 3-1 win at home to Blackpool and stayed there as Bartley, Judge, Aheebwa and Barton secured a 4-1 thrashing of Chesterfield.
Raybould celebrated a new league appearances record of 235 by laying on the only goal for Barton at Hartlepool, which made it five wins from five. The winning streak ended with a rotated side earning a 1-1 with Fylde but Truro continued to excel thanks to the excellent Wooster, who claimed MOTM match in a 1-0 win at home to Newport then a 0-0 at Charlton. Another clean sheet followed as Barton’s early brace led a 4-0 thumping of Southend, teeing up a surprise top-of-the-table clash with Barnsley that saw Truro finally lose 2-1. That began a tough run of games against the league’s best teams and Truro suddenly went six without a win.
Aheebwa’s goal snapped that streak to earn a 1-0 at home to Crewe before Meyler’s header earned an impressive 1-1 with Blackburn. But Truro also struggled through December, only winning one of their seven league games to drop to 11th in League One heading into the new year – albeit just two points outside the playoff places in what looked like being another tight race.
Facing Big Boys In The Cups
Truro went beyond the Carabao Cup first round this season, beating Championship side Plymouth on penalties after a 2-2 home draw. Another Championship side Fulham followed, as did another 2-2 and another penalties success as Wooster saved two spotkicks. That teed up Truro’s first-ever clash with an English big boy as they faced a trip to Old Trafford. They performed well to only lose 3-1 to Man United with a Shaqueel van Persie and a Rasmus Hojlund brace, but Truro bagged £512k in gate receipts.
Truro snapped a poor league run by winning 2-0 at Darlington in the FA Cup first round then quickfire Bartley and Luczak strikes defeated Hull 2-1. Annoyingly, for the third time in four years, they got drawn with Brentford but Trevelyan did his usual trick of resting the team for the preceding league game and Thwaite and Judge goals earned an impressive 2-2 at home. But the run ended there as they lost 1-0 at Brentford, which bagged a disappointing £180k in gate receipts.
Truro had only previously won one of their nine EFL Trophy games – against Brighton U21s – and that trend continued with 0-0 draws but penalty shootout successes against Southend and Cheltenham. But they finally won one as Barton and Judge goals downed Bournemouth U21s 2-1 to reach the knockouts for the first time. They edged past Swindon 1-0 then beat Wimbledon and Rochdale on penalties after 0-0 draws to reach the semis, where they, yet again, drew 0-0 and beat Oxford on penalties. That teed up another Truro’s second trip to Wembley to face League One leaders Barnsley in the Final. Trevelyan was without the injured Bartley, so lined up:
Wooster; Raybould, Agbaje, James, Papadopolous; Wood; Foyle, Vincent, Aheebwa; Judge, Luczak
Subs: Layne, Hazard, Meyler, Payne, Barton, Georgiou, Kelsey
The game started slowly, but Truro landed the first blow as James headed in a nearpost corner only for Barnsley to swiftly equalise. Barnsely then went ahead through a disgrace of a penalty decision but a wonderful Foyle pass sent Luczak through to cross for Judge to equalise. Barnsley thought they’d nicked it in injury time but their striker was ruled offside and it went to extra time. Nothing happened in the extra period until, five minutes from time, midfielder Nikolas Georgiou collected a Barnsley corner, raced through the middle and put Anthony Payne in to smash Truro in front. And that was enough for Truro to upset the odds and win another trophy.
Truro City won the Bristol Street Motors Trophy!
Outside Playoffs Shot
Truro lost Barlow to Wrexham for £500k, the second-biggest sale in club history, on January deadline day, which saw promising 17-year-old Marios Papadopolous promoted prematurely. They began 2031 with two tough away days and lost 2-1 at leaders Barnsley and 4th-place Hull. But a friendlier run of fixtures followed and they got back on track as Luczak and Barton earned 2-1 wins at home to Hartlepool and Peterborough before Bartley and Kelsey earned the same scoreline and bottom-side Fylde.
Four consecutive draws followed, which was snapped by Luczak’s brace downing Cheltenham 2-1 to, pretty remarkably, lift Truro into 6th place. The top five was probably decided, but 6th to 12th were separated by just 3 points with 10 games remaining. Late Luczak and Payne goals nicked a 2-1 win at 10th-place Blackburn, Judge and Hames secured a deserved 2-0 win over Rotherham before a massive 4-1 thumping of Bolton topped off by Papadopolous’s first senior goal. A tired team got dominated at QPR but bounced back to batter Chesterfield 4-0 led by another Luczak double.
That solid run of form took Truro 5 points clear off 7th place with five games remaining. The run-in began with a solid 1-1 at Blackpool before a more disappointing 1-1 at Cheltenham a few days after the Wembley celebrations. But Foyle’s goal was enough to beat relegated Stockport on Easter Monday and put Truro 4 points clear with two games to go. And they booked their place in the playoffs as Judge, Aheebwa and Luczak secured a 3-1 win at Carlisle. Truro finished in 6th place with 77 points after 21 wins, 14 draws and 11 defeats, scoring 71 and conceding 56. Luczak was the 6th top scorer with 15 in 34 and Judge was 8th with 13 in 36, while Bartley got the 7th-most assists with 9. And Vincent’s wonderstrike against Blackpool won the league’s goal of the season award.
The bad news was that Truro took on by far the league’s best attack as they faced Wimbledon, who’d scored 101 goals including six against Truro, in the playoff semis. Luczak struck late in in the home leg to nick a 1-1 and they performed well away to hold Wimbledon to a 1-0 win. But that was the end of the road for Truro.
Another Record High For Truro
Truro made it eight successive record-high finishes in club history under Trevelyan as they began to threaten League One’s finest. Luczak led the way with 19 goals, 9 assists and a 7.21 average rating this season, followed by his strike partners Judge and Barton, who scored 17 and 16 goals. 18-year-old Bartley also impressed with 12 assists, typifying the potential shining through in this Truro squad.
Trevelyan was delighted that his decision to focus on youth had paid off, with the likes of Judge, Bartley and Aheebwa all showing signs of promise. But he’d have another big summer on his hands with several more players departing the club.
Could Truro build on their first League One playoff place and push for promotion in 2032? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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