Truro crash out of Trophy after loss to Southend

SATURDAY'S trip to Southend United in the third round of the FA Trophy always looked like a tough ask for Truro City and the Tinners were no match for their fellow National League hosts as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat at Roots Hall.

- STUART JAMES

‘As far as Cup draws go, there weren't many that could have been tougher for John Askey and his men, but the story of this game followed the pattern of many league games this season for Truro, who were far from disgraced despite the convincing nature of the scoreline.

For half an hour, they battled well and contained a side sitting seventh in the National League, but no sooner had Truro started to look comfortable, disaster struck as a mistake led to Sam Austin, who scored the only goal when the two sides clashed in the league at the TCS earlier this season, combined with Oli Coker to set up Harry Cardwell, who broke the deadlock midway through the first half.

Truro did not buckle, but when Jack Bridge doubled the hosts lead in added on time at the end of the first half, that hill the Cornishmen had to climb became a mountain.

“It’s always difficult coming here and you saw that today,” Askey said. “Southend are a really good team and we struggled with them.

“For 30 minutes, I thought we defended really well and then a mistake cost us and it is tough to come back from that. But we did, we rallied a little bit but to then concede just before halftime knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit.