Truro City FC vs Braintree Town: Match Report

Photo credit: Matt Friday/Truro City FC

Match Report

by Matt Friday at Bolitho Park

TRURO CITY 1, BRAINTREE TOWN 2

Truro City slipped to a second successive home defeat in National League South at the hands of Braintree Town.

After a goalless first 45 minutes at Bolitho Park that yielded little in the way of goalmouth action, it was Iron substitute Jayden Davis’ fortuitous strike that broke the deadlock in the 65th minute.

Angelo Harrop’s side doubled their advantage soon after through Alfie Pavey, and while Rocky Neal managed to reduce the arrears with ten minutes to play, it was not enough to spare City from back-to-back defeats for the first time since November.

The result means City remain 19th in the National League South table, while Braintree have climbed two places to 11th.

City made three changes to the side that started their most recent outing, a 4-1 defeat at home to Worthing a fortnight earlier. Sam Sanders, Dan Rooney and Ryan Law returned to the starting line-up in favour of James Melhado, Adam Porter and the injured Ben Adelsbury.

There was a place among the substitutes bench for new signing Dominic Johnson-Fisher, who joined City from Isthmian League outfit Whitehawk on Friday.

Chances were few and far between in the opening 45 minutes with Shaq Coulthirst curling narrowly wide of James Hamon’s post from the edge of the box in Braintree’s best opportunity after 12 minutes.

City also struggled to test Hamon’s counterpart Jack Sims, although he did have to be alert to claim Will Dean’s powerful effort shortly before the interval, with Neal having turned Connor Riley-Lowe’s cross narrowly wide a few minutes before.

Both sides continued to cancel each other out in the second stanza, and it took a moment of fortune to break the deadlock in the 65th minute. Aaron Blair bore down on the City goal until being dispossessed by a fine Tom Harrison tackle, which cannoned off substitute Davis’ leg and flew into the corner of Hamon’s net.

That stroke of luck gave the Iron a lift and they were celebrating a second goal only six minutes later. Davis turned provider on this occasion with his left-wing cross being met by the head of Pavey, who powered the ball home from six yards out.

City chief Paul Wotton rang the changes in response and handed a debut to new signing Johnson-Fisher, and the home side got themselves back in the game in the 81st minute.

Neal was the man to give City late hope, with the forward squeezing his shot inside the far post from a tight angle to set up a grandstand finish, but Braintree managed the remainder of the game well to take the points back to Essex.

City: Hamon, Riley-Lowe, Palmer, Sanders, Dean, Harvey, Brett (Sullivan, 73), Rooney

(Johnson-Fisher, 73), Neal, Harrison, Law. Subs not used: Melhado, Porter, Buse.

Braintree: Sims, Davies, Altintop, Grimwood, Tompkins, Blackwell (Davis, 58), Payne (Miccio,

85), Blair, Coulthirst, Lambe, Pavey. Subs not used: Brothers, Roberts, Watt.

Referee: Robert Ablitt

Match Reaction from Paul Wotton

Boss Paul Wotton felt his Truro City side were unfortunate to lose their National League South encounter at home to Braintree Town on Saturday.

Owing to three successive postponements, City took to the Bolitho Park pitch for the first time since their 4-1 defeat at home to high-flying Worthing a fortnight earlier, but were undone by two goals in the space of six second-half minutes as the Essex outfit triumphed 2-1.

After a goalless first 45 minutes that yielded little in the way of goalmouth action, it was Iron substitute Jayden Davis’ fortuitous strike that broke the deadlock in the 65th minute.

Angelo Harrop’s side doubled their advantage soon after through Alfie Pavey, and while Rocky Neal managed to reduce the arrears with ten minutes to play, it was not enough to spare City from back-to-back defeats for the first time since November.

“[It’s] disappointing,” Wotton told trurocity.co.uk. “On a difficult surface, I thought in the first half we played the better football, created the best chance of the first half and we looked Comfortable.

“I was disappointed with our second-half performance – with 25-30 minutes to go I thought we looked really leggy. It could be down to the fact we haven’t played, but we’ve trained hard enough so that was a little bit concerning.

“The first goal… it’s very fortunate that Tom [Harrison] has kicked it against the lad who scored. It wasn’t his finish, it’s a deflected goal, but we’ve got to deal with that much, much better.

“I thought that affected us, the first goal, and we got a bit raggedy for five or ten minutes and they scored their second goal, and every goal is a poor goal to concede but that was poor.

“At 2-0 we looked beat and I didn’t like that. We made a couple of subs and we scored and we’re on the front foot and giving it a go, but I think Braintree managed the game well in the last five or six minutes and we lacked a bit of quality in the final third.

“Overall, I’m not saying for one second that I think we should have won the game, but I definitely don’t think we should have lost the game.

“I heard their manager say that was fully deserved but I’m not so sure, I disagree with that. They were very professional in the way they saw the game out, so I’ll give them credit for that, Definitely.”

With both sides cancelling each other out in the second half, it felt like it would take a moment of brilliance or a moment of fortune to break the deadlock, and unfortunately for City, Braintree benefitted from the latter in the 65th minute.

Countering from a City free-kick, Iron forward Aaron Blair bore down on goal until being dispossessed by a fine Tom Harrison tackle, which cannoned into substitute Davis’ leg and flew into the bottom corner of James Hamon’s net.

That stroke of luck gave the Iron a lift and they were celebrating a second goal only six minutes later, with Davis crossing for Pavey to thunder a header past Hamon from six yards out.

“It was a lucky goal, but we should have dealt with it,” Wotton said. “We’ve cleared the ball, it’s hit him and it’s gone in. I don’t think the lad knew much about it. But you can’t let things affect you too much on the football pitch.

“I get it, you’re disappointed, but then we concede the second goal and that is an uphill battle against a team that is going to sit in and defend well, as they did. I thought they defended their 18-yard box very well and that’s where we didn’t quite have that extra little bit [of quality] today [to break them down].

“The surface is a lot to do with it, the fact we haven’t played for a long time had a lot to do with it we’re a better team when we’re in our rhythm and playing games and got a bit of momentum going.”

City now have a rare full week off until Saturday’s trip to Hampton & Richmond Borough, and with those postponements creating an increasingly busy fixture list in the latter stage of the season, Wotton is welcoming the opportunity to get onto the training pitch this week.

“We need to train, we need to keep going,” he said. “I think we’ve got 22 games in 71 days or something like that, so it’s going to be tough with a small squad. We’re going to have to try and get some bodies in.

“It’s fine margins today, I don’t think there was much between the teams at all. But listen, Braintree have come out on top and we haven’t, so we’re going to be disappointed and they’re going to be happy.”