Cornish Crusade | Part 12 | Truro’s Club Record Finish Streak Ends

Truro City recorded an 11th successive club record high finish under local hero Perran Trevelyan as they finished 9th in the SkyBet Championship in 2034. But the summer looked set to be one of change as the manager looked to further strengthen his young squad.

Off the field, excitement was building as the board announced plans for a new stadium, the not very imaginatively named 17,428-capacity Truro City Stadium. Construction is expected to be completed in June 2036, when it will more than double the current stadium capacity. However, the £24.5m loan to build the stadium will be require £300k monthly repayments for the next 10 years.

Trevelyan decided to use the club’s solid finances to start scouting outside of England. He expanded the scouting team, set the scouting range to World and created new recruitment focuses beyond the home nation for the first time. The finances were boosted by selling goalkeeper Philip Wakefield to Reading for £2.4m and bringing in an additional £1.6m for a few backups, which took their bank balance past £20m for the first time.

He took advantage of that new reach to recruit an exciting Argentine contingent, bringing in striker Gabriel Cabral on loan from Boca and midfielders Víctor Basso and Gerardo Risso Patrón and centre back Joan Serrano from River. Trevelyan also loaned in midfielder James Hall from Cardiff, signed 6ft 6in centre back David Nagbe on a free from Chelsea, and promoted goalkeeper Jack Bartram, holding midfielder Paul Fleming and defender Karnell Pook. Truro lost left back John Fry to Hearts for £150k in January, but replaced him by paying a club record £110k for Danubio’s Matías Perdomo who, at 23, is the second oldest player at the club after new captain Drew Meyler (24).

Trevelyan stuck with his 4-3-3 approach but again changed the midfield roles to match the loanee demands. The new signings allowed new vice-captain George Bartley to move out to the right wing with Ben Hall shifting across to a more defensive right back. However, they lost J Hall to a broken ankle in the first week of season, which forced Bartley back into midfield.

Truro’s Improvement Finally Stalls

The bookies still didn’t fancy Truro’s chances, predicting them to finish bottom of the Championship but with shortened title odds of 250/1. Their supposed relegation rivals were likely to be Oldham, relegated Burnley, Charlton, promoted Lincoln, Blackburn and Watford. West Brom are yet again 5/6 favourites to win the league, followed by Truro’s relegated former senior affiliate Sunderland (9/4), Wolves (5/2), Ipswich (11/2) and Birmingham (13/2).

For just the second time in this save, Truro began the season at home. And they played well as a second-half brace by winger Kieran Joseph and a clean sheet on Bartram’s senior debut earned a 2-0 win over Watford. A solid 0-0 followed at Charlton, and the clean sheets continued as Cabral’s got his first goal at home to Reading before he scored one and made the other for winger Jack Bartle at Sheffield Wednesday. And Bartram only conceded his first goal through a penalty in a 1-1 at Lincoln. Serrano was named young player of the month in his first month in England, ahead of Cabral and Bartram.

A tricky spell followed, but they got back on track as striker Keith Cole headed home B Hall’s cross for a 1-0 win over Cardiff before widemen Bartle and Joseph delivered a 2-0 win at struggling Blackburn. And that was backed up by a statement 2-1 victory over former senior affiliate Sunderland. A steady stream of injuries hampered their form, and Truro slumped into the bottom half of the table in early December, and their chances of a 12th successive club record high league position seemed unlikely as they sat 16th.

Trevelyan changed up some of the player roles at the end of January, including inverting the widemen, which worked nicely as Bartley, Basso and Cabral earned a 3-1 win over Lincoln. That moved them 17 points clear of relegation and 15 points off the playoffs with 14 games remaining, which meant the season was effectively over in late February. A tricky end to the season, which they finished well by beating Middlesbrough 3-0, saw Truro finish in a solid 13th on 60 points after 13 wins, 18 draws and 14 defeats. Only bottom side Charlton scored fewer than Truro’s 47 and they had the fourth-best defence (44).

Cabral led the way with 12 goals in 47 appearances, which continued Truro’s ongoing search for a consistent goalscorer. Bartle impressed with 10 goals and a club-high 10 assists and Serrano chipped in with 7 goals alongside Joseph, who worryingly didn’t get a single assist from the wing.

Fourth Season In The Championship

Trevelyan’s South American experiment had been a bit hit and miss, but he doubled down on the impressive performances of Serrano and Basso, who’s among the favourites for Championship young player of the season, to keep them in Cornwall for another season. And he added to it by loaning in playmaker Gabriel Torres from Racing and striker Rodrigo Miguel from Rosario.

For the first time, Truro weren’t favourites to be relegated from the Championship heading into the 2035/36 campaign. The bookies tipped them to finish 22nd with title odds of 50/1 only ahead of promoted sides Blackpool and Bradford. Relegated Leicester are 4/6 title favourites ahead of West Brom (3/1), Sunderland (4/1), Birmingham (7/1) and Sheff U (15/2).

Truro began their fourth season in the second tier with a superb performance. Basso sent Miguel in to score 19 minutes into his debut before a Bartley double downed Leeds 3-1. A week later, Basso opened the scoring and debutant Torres slammed home a penalty to earn a point at Luton. A strong start continued with Perdomo creating the only goal for Bartley at home to Derby, the same duo combining twice as they crushed Cardiff 4-0 and Truro went top of the Championship for the first time as Cole ended a 10-hour goal drought in a win at Watford.

Truro couldn’t maintain that superb form, but Torres’ wonderful freekick earned a point at home to Birmingham and they continued to be difficult to beat in a really tight league. Indeed, a 3-0 win at home to Millwall saw Truro leapfrog four teams to go 2nd in mid-November. That trait continued as, heading into a busy Christmas period, Truro had won as many games as 9th-place Cardiff but only lost twice and drawn nearly half their games. However, two huge 2-0 wins over Blackburn and Coventry, before Miguel scored the only goal against West Brom, ensured Truro went into the new year top of the Championship.

More Cup Progression

In 2034/35, Truro made their way through the Carabao Cup early rounds at Leyton Orient and League One West Ham, then beat Rotherham 3-1 with a Cabral hat trick. But the run ended with a 3-0 defeat at home to Arsenal. In the FA Cup, they breezed past Sutton 4-1 away but, for the third time in six years, drew a very strong Brentford and lost 2-0. A year later, they snuck past Wigan on penalties, won 3-0 at Colchester then hit the motherload with a trip to holders Man United, which bagged them £600k in gate receipts alongside a solid effort to only lose 2-1 to a Shaqueel van Persie brace before Bartle’s late consolation. In the FA Cup, they saw off Preston before losing 2-1 at home to Spurs.

An Unlikely Shot At The Premier League

2036 began with two huge games and, helpfully, five players on international duty and three injured. Leaders Truro hosted equally unlikely 2nd-place Hull, who claimed the bragging rights and top spot with a 3-2 win, then visited 3rd-place Sunderland and lost 2-0 to two Luka Romero goals – and it’s worth pointing out Sunderland have six players earning more than Truro’s entire squad combined! Truro bounced back with easy wins over struggling Sheff W and Lincoln, but their penchant for draws continued. And, with 10 games remaining, they found themselves 2nd on 65 points, with 8 points separating the top seven.

Truro lost a tricky game at Sheff U before Trevelyan celebrated 700 games in management with a 2-2 at home to 6th-place Stoke. Miguel struck twice to down Luton 3-1 before a massive trip to leaders Leeds, who had too much for a tired Truro team and won 3-1 with two goals by a Man City wonderkid loanee. That took them into the March international break in 4th and 5 points off automatic promotion. But they closed in with Miguel’s late goal nicking a 1-0 win against Cardiff before Torres’ penalty earned a point at Derby and confirmed Truro’s highest-ever league finish. And going into the final four games, Truro sat 4th just 4 points behind 2nd-place Sunderland but with by far the friendliest run-in.

Game 1 – Oxford (17th, away): Truro kept the pressure on as Joseph scored the opener and laid on the other for Miguel in a 2-1 victory. Sunderland lost a big game at Leeds 1-0, so Truro moved just 3 points away from the top two and confirmed at least their first Championship playoffs.

Game 2 – Blackpool (21st, home): A few days later, a Miguel brace was enough for a comfortable 2-1 win against relegation-threatend Blackpool, who scored their only shot late on. Sunderland beat Hull 2-1 to make things really tight, with Sunderland going 2nd just 2 points behind Leeds, with a 1-point gap back to Truro and Hull and Birmingham another point further back. So the top five were split by 4 points!

Game 3 – QPR (17th, away): Miguel was on the scoresheet again a week later, but Truro failed to take their chances and were held to a 1-1 by a pretty dodgy penalty. Sunderland won 3-2 at Sheff U and Leeds beat Stoke 7-0 to effectively confirm both their promotions.

Game 4 – Blackburn (15th, home): Trevelyan blooded a few of his youngsters for the final game and they slipped to a slightly unlucky 3-2 defeat. Hull beat Sheff W to leapfrog them and Sunderland won on the final day to nick the title from Leeds by a point.

Championship Playoffs

That teed up a playoff semi-final against Birmingham, who Truro had only beaten once in eight league meetings. But they bucked that trend in style in the first leg as Torres headed the opener after 8 minutes and Joseph scored either side of halftime to seal a 3-1 victory. Truro bid farewell to Truro Sports Hub, their home since the first season of this save, in the home leg and booked their place at Wembley with a 2-2 draw thanks to Miguel’s first half brace.

A week later, Truro headed to Wembley for the biggest match in club history. They faced fellow overachievers Hull, who overturned a 2-0 deficit to Leicester with a 91st-minute equaliser then beat them on penalties in the semis. Trevelyan had no injury concerns, so lined up:

Bartram; Hall, Meyler, Serrano, Perdomo; Torres; Bartley, Basso; Joseph, Bartle, Miguel
Subs: Docherty, Clemmensen, Pook, Turay, Leahy, Atkinson, Adade, Fleming, Whyte

Truro were put under immediate pressure as Hull had a mass of shots, made one count from a corner, forced Bartram into several saves and had two goals disallowed. But they eventually settled down and a brilliant passing move ended up with Bartle picking out Miguel to calmly lob the keeper. A cagey second half followed, with the only moment of note seeing Bartle and Miguel link up again only for the Argentinian to creep just offside. And the game went to extra time. Hull struck again in first half injury time, but they handed Truro a lifeline as a terrible pass across the defence went straight to Miguel, who curled a delicious shot into the top corner. And that took this huge game to penalties. Goalscoring hero Miguel missed Truro’s first, Bartram saved Hull’s third but youngster Atkinson immediately saw his penalty saved. And Hull sealed promotion to the Premier League with their fifth penalty.

So Close To The Premier League

Trevelyan led Truro to within a penalty kick of the Premier League, which undoubtedly hurt but he took so much pride from the achievements of his young squad. His South American influx very much worked out this season, led by Miguel scoring a superb 26 in 50 with 10 assists, Torres scoring 6 with 5 assists and Basso getting 8 assists and a club-high 7.17 average rating. Joseph was also excellent with 18 goals and 11 assists, Bartle got 13 goals and 8 assists and Bartley scored 8 goals with 7 assists from midfield.

Trevelyan was very excited about the future at Truro, with a new stadium on the way and some really promising youngsters. Truro had two more strong youth intakes that delivered five 5-star potential players and four more with 4.5-star potential. The star of the 2035 intake was midfielder Kane Atkinson, got an assist on his debut on the final day of the season then made 25 appearances in his first full season, along with Ghanaian right back Frederick Adade, Sierra Leonean midfielder Abdul Turay, Welsh centre back Wayne Williams and Zimbabwean goalkeeper Nigel Mpala. A year later, they were promised “4 As” and got promising striker Shaun Robinson, winger Conor Reynolds and goalkeeper Jeff White.

Could Truro build on their penalty heartache and go a step closer to the Premier League next season? Join us next Wednesday to find out!