Hopes for revenge over Truro for their recent win at Kingfield were dashed in Cornwall as what could politely be described as a limp and poor display saw United fall to a straight fourth away league defeat, thus handing the division’s bottom club their first “double” of the season.

Some familiar faces pulled on United shirts for the first time, with Louis Wells starting in goal, and Adam Everitt slotting in at left back, becoming only the second player to play for both the pre-merger clubs and United in the process. Illness to Tom Collins left Kudus Oyenuga and Alisanne N’Diaye as the preferred starting partnership up front.

The home side came close to opening the scoring as early as the third minute. Andrew Watkins collected Marcus Martin’s clearance down their left flank, and he passed to Barry Hayles who was just inside the area, but his side-footed effort went over the bar.

United’s best effort of the first period came on the quarter-hour mark. Mark Bentley battled with City’s Joe Broad for the ball, and Luke Payne was a relieved custodian as he did just enough to fumble the midfielder’s long range effort onto the bar and over to safety. Luke Williams then went close a minute later with a shot that drifted wide. Bentley was soon involved at the other end when the ball bounced up to strike his left arm, but referee Hicks waved away the home side’s penalty claims.

Seven minutes before the break, the home side were in front. Luke Payne took a free kick wide on the Truro left, which was collected by Hayles who exchanged passes with Watkins, with Watkins then cutting in from the left to find Les Afful, who tucked the ball under Louis Wells.

The United side which had under-performed during the first half (and were sent out early before the re-start to limber up in an attempt to encourage a more urgent response) were given a few minutes at the start of the second half before Tony O’Driscoll made his first change. Dan Wishart replaced Jerome Anderson on fifty-four minutes, a move which saw Luke Williams swap wings. There seemed no danger three minutes later when Wishart was adjudged to have fouled City’s player-manager Lee Hodges close to the touchline and just inside the home half. However, Hodges’ 40-yard ball from the free kick was a well delivered accurate one, and was knocked down by Ben Gerring into the path of Andrew Watkins, who gratefully rounded Wells to double the home side’s lead as the statuesque United defence stood appealing for an offside flag that was never going to come.

Julian Owusu replaced the ineffective N’Diaye from the restart, and this seemed to pump some urgency into our attacking options. United were back in the game on sixty-four minutes. Adam Everitt’s ball down the left was taken on by Kudus Oyenuga, and with Luke Williams rushing in to try and covert, the unfortunate Paul Kendall only succeeded in turning the ball past his own keeper before any United player could get a finishing touch. Sadly for United, our attacking options were soon to become limited as with twelve minutes to go Owusu over-stretched trying to reach another Oyenuga cross, and had to be substituted by Ben Gladwin.

The home side deservedly sealed the points as the game moved into stoppage time. Marcus Martin’s long ball gave saw the home side’s man-of-the-match Watkins comfortably outpace Adam Bygrave and lob the advancing Wells for his second goal of the afternoon. A Truro team that will almost certainly leave the division at the end of April looked hungrier and sharper throughout the match, much to the disappointment and worry of the dozen or so fans who made the 600-mile round trip to West Country.

United’s new management team (who acknowledged to supporters after the game that this performance was nowhere near the required standard) will have had plenty to think about on the long journey home, as the run which has returned an average of less than a point per game since the start of December and seen us fall away from play-off contenders to nervously dropping into a very tight mid table continues.

Report by Lee Hermitage.