BRITISH GAS BUSINESS FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1 SOUTH AND WEST
Match report by Ian Denness
Winchester lose out in the Tale of Two Cities
On Saturday Winchester City made their longest trip of the season when they travelled to Cornwall to face high flying Truro City.
Truro, who featured a number of ex-league players drawn from across the south west peninsula, had been experiencing a rocky time at home over recent weeks and, with Winchester starting to improve, the small number of supporters who made their way west did so with a small degree of hopeful expectation. However, it wasn’t to be.
Winchester City manager Robbie Elliott fielded an almost unchanged side to that which had played so well against Thatcham on the previous Tuesday, the exception being that Mark Lavelle started in place of Joe Wright. For the opening twenty minutes Truro, although the more skilful side, were well marshalled by Winchester and hopes of collecting at least a point grew ever more possible.
On seventeen minutes James Roden received a knock to the head that required bandaging, but the resultant free kick came to nothing. Truro began increasing the pressure as the half progressed and this brought results in the 29th minute. A foul committed outside the area by Winchester’s Gareth Byres saw Truro’s Andy Taylor blast his well-taken free kick high to the right of City’s stretching keeper Clint Davies. An identical free kick a minute later could have resulted in a second, but Davies did well to get to the ball on that occasion.
Truro continued to press and could have extended their lead were it not for a combination of firm defending (Adam George made a well-timed tackle to deprive a Truro player of a shot on goal), and some wayward shooting from the home side.
However, two goals late in the first half ended the game as a contest. First of all the Division’s top scorer Stewart Yetton slotted home in the 44th minute after some good passing play down the Winchester left, before Marcus Martin made it three for Truro on the stroke of half time. Tom Butcher replaced Matt Palmer for the second half but it was always going to be a tall order for Winchester to get back into the game. With Winchester’s midfield finding it difficult to work the ball through to the front pair of Carl Foster and Taylor Morgan, the best chances came through long range shots from outside of the Truro box. George watched as two of his best efforts sailed just over the bar.
Truro collected their fourth goal on 60 minutes from a well placed cross that found the head of Andy Watkins. Further chances for Truro went begging largely due to the heroics of Davies in goal. As the match drew to a close he was Winchester’s saviour on a number of occasions and his airborne acrobatics helped keep the score down.
On 75 minutes Tom Riddell was brought on as a replacement for Foster, but this failed to alter the course of the game. The coup de grace was administered in the dying seconds of injury time when Shane Tolley finally managed to get past the outstretched Davies.
City: Davies C, Byres, Smith, Richardson, Lavelle M, Palmer (Butcher 46), Roden, Borthwick, Morgan T, George, Foster (Riddell 75). Subs (not used): King, Vines, Smallpiece.
Attendance: 414
