Gary's View
Away to Truro
Posted by Webmaster
Sep 20, 2009, 20:52

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To come away from Truro with a point playing with 10 men for an hour is obviously more than satisfying, and I was delighted and proud with how the team played throughout the match.

We knew what to expect from Truro. They are a quality side, well funded, and have 22 players in their first team squad, and the lads knew what they were going to be in for.

When we conceded early on, you could have quite easily feared the worse, but with the character in the squad we rose to the challenge well.

Their goal was clearly offside, no question. The final ball actually came off their player, which the referee never saw as he was in a bad position. He overruled the linesman and the goal stood.

At the end of the day, you just have to accept it and get on with it, so credit us for responding well to get level soon after. Lee Chaffey put the ball away well after his initial effort bounced off the woodwork, and we were obviously then back in the game.

I guess from our point of view, the game hinged on the decision to send Dave Theobald off. It was a ridiculous decision, as their player was going away from goal, and it also took place about 40 yards from goal too. Admittedly Dave got himself into a bit of bad positioning, but it was a booking at the most, and I was astounded that it was a straight red. This meant I had to re-shuffle the pack and took Steve Gentle off, and bought Tom Pepper on, with John Frendo acting as a lone striker and feeding off scraps up front.

With us down to 10 men, it was always going to be difficult, but once again Zac Barrett made some fine saves to keep us in the game. Clearly he was a bit lucky with the incident when they felt he carried the ball out of the area, but, on the other hand, the Truro keeper took the ball outside the box, bought it back in, and got away with it.

I thought our display, especially in the second half when on paper we had a mountain to climb was a tremendous rearguard action against a quality side, however, if I were Truro, I would be disappointed not to have beaten us. I certainly would have liked us to play the full game with 11 men to see what the result would have been, but with 10 we were brilliant and in fact, we could have nicked it at the end as both Craig Radcliffe and Neil Midgley had opportunities.

As I said at the beginning, to come away from Truro with a point, and with 10 men is excellent. In some respects it was a different world in terms of the set-up. Our players made their own way there, and paid for their own hotel room, and yet Truro have a large squad, are funded well throughout, and have accommodation paid for week on week when they travel to away games. It is a good set-up, and unless something goes radically wrong, they really should be there or thereabouts in the mix at the end of the season. So given the opposition, most teams would have crumbled following the sending off, but it underlines the spirit and determination in the team at the moment not to fold when the going gets tough and as I have said previously we are a stronger unit this season.

We came away from Cornwall unscathed in terms of injuries to the squad. I believe that as Dave Theobald showed no violent conduct, he will only be suspended for one game, which will be against Tiverton in a fortnight.

Next up for us is Northampton Spencer in the FA Cup. They are in the same league as Daventry, and we will have them watched. Once again, we will not be taking anything for granted, as we know that they will come to Cambridge and give it a real go, as it will be their cup final.

Elsewhere, as reported, I am still looking for a replacement for Scott Neilson. I’ve chased three players in the last week, but to no avail, but we have put a 7-day approach in for John Turner at Corby, so we’ll see what happens there.

Finally, I must pay credit to the supporters who made the trip to Truro. The support on the road is always appreciated, but to get 20 or 30 down there after such a long trip is fantastic. Rest assured, the players and I really appreciated it, and it was great to see.


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