Over the last 12 seasons, Truro City had risen from the Vanarama National League South to being one penalty kick away from the Premier League. Ultimately, a couple of missed penalties were their downfall, and they settled for a fifth season in the SkyBet Championship.
A big summer was in store as Truro were set to move into the brand new 17,428-capacity Truro City Stadium. However, the project got delayed by a couple of months, so they wouldn’t move in until September. Also off the field, club legend Stewart Yetton, who’d been Perran Trevelyan’s assistant since the very first day of this save, was allowed to move on after 17 years and 26 total years of service. Trevelyan knew it was time to bring in a proper assistant and recruited former Croatia international Igor Stimac.
Trevelyan had refrained from spending the £20m or so he’d amassed over the years. But, given last year’s close miss, he decided this was the season to start spending. That began by paying a new club record £550k for Uruguayan winger Emiliano López from Nacional, along with Truro’s first Brazilian in left back Vanderson Pereira after he was released by Gremio and promising winger Martín Caballero on a free from Pinamar. Trevelyan also added experience by snapping up former Inter striker Martín Satriano on a free and loaned in another South American in midfielder Alejandro Silva from Nacional.
Despite those signings, Trevelyan continued to rely on homegrown prospects in key areas. Jack Bartram continues in goal, Truro-born Karnell Pook, who’s attracted interest from Juventus, steps up as starting centre back alongside captain Drew Meyler with competition from Falmouth-born Euan Whyte, 17-year-old Kane Atkinson comes into the holding role behind vice-captain George Bartley, and the backups include seven players who came through the Truro academy. Pereira’s arrival sees Matías Perdomo move out to the right, backed up by 17-year-old Frederick Abade, and Jack Bartle moves up front to allow López to play on the left. However, while he stuck with his 4-3-3, the manager had begun quietly training a 3-5-2 system that would require several players to retrain positions.
Upsetting The Odds Again
The bookies really didn’t rate Trevelyan’s transfer window as they reinstated Truro as relegation favourites with 200/1 title odds. They’re expected to be in the mix with Bradford, promoted Wrexham, Lincoln and QPR. Relgated Southampton are evens favourites followed by Leicester (9/4), Sheff U (7/2), West Brom (5/1) relegated Fulham and Bristol City (13/2). But Trevelyan had learned that these predictions weren’t worth the paper they were written on.
Truro began their fifth season in the Championship at home to promoted Burnley. A superb Bartram performance with eight saves and Bartle’s early strike, which surprisingly ended a 23-match goalless streak, sealed a solid 1-0 victory. New boy Silva scored the only goal as Truro dominated another promoted side Preston by 16 shots to 3 and a really solid start continued as winger Kieran Joseph scored both in a 2-0 win at home to Forest. That ended with back-to-back 2-1 defeats at Luton and Millwall before the final game at Truro Sports Hub saw the fans have something to celebrate as Joseph and Satríano’s late strike down West Brom 2-0.
Truro City Stadium was officially unveiled on 3 September 2036. The first game in the new home saw Truro entertain Bristol City, who’d been in the Premier League for the previous four seasons, and started well as Satríano tapped in a loose ball after just 30 seconds and Meyler headed home a corner after 14 minutes. Bristol completely dominated and got one back, only for López to drill his first Truro goal from 25 yards to make it 3-1 from 4 shots to 16. And another solid Bartram performance ensured it stayed that way for a highly undeserved victory in front of a record 16,109 crowd that earned a new gate receipts record of £300k. Two more home games followed in a week and they drew 0-0 with Sheff U before Turay’s first senior goal opened the scoring in a 2-1 win over Blackburn.
Injuries hit a pretty threadbare squad hard and the good start tailed off a little. They recovered with a strong November led by the evergreen Satriano scoring the opener in wins against Lincoln and Wrexham. The trademark busy December took its toll but Satriano and Silva earned a 2-0 win at Bristol City and Meyler headed the only goal at home to Coventry on Boxing Day. That lifted Truro all the way up to 2nd – despite having scored the same number of goals as bottom-side Bradford – in what looked like being another tight fight for promotion, with the top eight separated by 9 points.
Cup Disappointment
Satríano scored his first Truro goal as they again beat still League One side West Ham in the Carabao Cup first round. Silva scored one and made the other two in a 3-1 win at Luton, but the run ended with a 2-0 defeat at Premier League side Wolves. And an annoying FA Cup third round draw saw Truro get Man United at home, but they did well to only lose 1-0 in the new stadium’s first sellout.
Promotion Push
2037 began with a new club record sale as Caballero, who undoubtedly had huge potential but was unlikely to get a work permit for a new contract, joined Napoli for an unrefusable £12.5m. Trevelyan strengthened his squad in January with probably his most exciting signing so far, bringing in Bernard Touré, who needs to retrain as a midfielder, for just £200k from AFAD Plateau. He was joined by Truro’s fifth Uruguayan in centre back Gabriel Larrea for £96k from Boston River and left back Stian Endre Valrygg on a free from Tromso. And on deadline day, a little out of desperation to add a striker, he brought in 6ft 4in Taison Lorenzato on loan from Palmeiras.
Touré made an instant impact as he won and converted a penalty to secure a 1-0 win at home to Cardiff. Truro suffered a few tricky away days, but Lorenzato scored his first goal as Joseph created both goals in a 2-1 victory over 10-man Middlesbrough. And, heading into the final 10 games, Truro had another great shot at promotion, sitting 4th with 2nd to 6th separated by just 4 points. Lorenzato and Joseph goals earned a 2-0 win over Lincoln to move Truro into the top 2 for the first time since January. But they swiftly dropped out of it with a 1-0 defeat at home to Preston.
Leaders Birmingham were running away with the league, but behind them, the promotion place and playoff spots were well up for grabs. With four games remaining, Stoke led 6th-place Bristol City by 5 points with Southampton on 74 and Forest, who had a game in hand, and Truro on 72. However, Truro had by far the toughest run-in, given they had to play all of the top three, having just lost 2-1 at Forest, and had to be careful not to drop back to 7th-place West Brom, who were 7 points behind them.
Game 1 – Stoke City (2nd, away): The run-in began with a really tough test as Truro visited 2nd-place Stoke. And they didn’t really get going as Stoke scored two second-half goals to ease to a 2-0 win. Elsewhere, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol City all won, but Forest lost 2-1 to Leicester.
Game 2 – Birmingham City (1st, home): Birmingham could clinch the title with victory at Truro City Stadium. But Truro’s defence held firm in a pretty affair that ended 0-0. Stoke won 5-1 at Oxford, Southampton drew 4-4 at Leicester, Bristol drew 1-1 with Burnley and Forest lost 1-0 at West Brom. Truro’s automatic promotion hopes were now ended, and they sat just 2 points clear of West Brom.
Game 3 – Wrexham (14th, away): That made a trip to Wrexham huge for Truro’s playoff hopes. And, while they couldn’t get the win, Joseph’s goal nicked a point after Wrexham led with a dubious penalty. Worryingly, West Brom managed to nick a point at Birmingham, who were crowned champions, while Bristol City lost 4-0 at Cardiff, Southampton beat Millwall 3-1 and Forest beat Derby 3-2. That teed up an exciting final day that saw Bristol and Truro leading West Brom by 2 points with Stoke and Southampton fighting it out for automatic promotion.
Game 4 – Southampton (3rd, home): Truro finished their first season at Truro City Stadium with a huge game as their opponents could seal promotion. But, roared on by a first league sellout, the home players delivered a 3-0 win through Bartley, Joseph and Touré. Bristol and West Brom won but Bristol drew, so Truro leapfrogged them. While Stoke’s draw at Sheff U was enough for promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 19 years.
Truro finished in 5th place with 77 points, after 21 wins, 14 draws and 11 defeats, scoring just 55 – which was 8 fewer than bottom-side Bradford – and conceding a comfortably league-low 40. As a result, Bartram led the league with 17 clean sheets. Joseph was the 11th-highest scorer with 15 goals, and their former striker, Martin Luczak, was the 3rd-highest scorer with 23 goals for 9th-place Millwall.
Another Playoff Shot
Truro’s second Championship playoff campaign saw them paired with the team they’d beaten on the final day, Southampton. The first leg was a repeat of the final day but, despite another solid defensive display, there wasn’t the same result as the sides played out a dull 0-0. And Southampton had too much for them in the away leg, cruising to a 2-0 victory to consign Truro to another season in the Championship. And, for context, Southampton spent £2m per week on wages compared to Truro’s £200k, so there’s no shame whatsoever in this defeat.
Another Strong Championship Showing
Truro continued to punch above their weight and push the Championship’s big boys close. They had minuscule finances compared to all their opponents, but Trevelyan’s focus on youth was very much paying dividends. That said, they continued to lack a proven goalscorer. Joseph led the way this season with 15 goals and 11 assists from the right wing. Retiring veteran Satriano was next with 8 goals followed by Silva and Meyler with 5. But 22-year-old Bartram was undoubtedly their star player this season, keeping the most clean sheets in the league, only conceding 0.88 goals per 90 minutes, making the highest save percentage of 84%, saving 4 out of 9 penalties, and getting a club-high 7.12 average rating.
An indicator of Truro’s progress was starlet Atkinson becoming the first club’s first player to be named on the NxGn list – coming in at number 16 ahead of Lorenzato at 21. There was more potential coming through as another promising intake delivered midfielders Peter Garner and Matthew McCall and wingers John Wilshaw and local boy Finn Geddes, from the village of Sticker.
Could Trevelyan finally find a striker to meet Truro’s need for a reliable goalscorer next season? And could they finally go one step further than the playoffs? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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