A much improved Truro City battled to draw level after falling behind 2-0 against Sutton United before being undone by a late strike from youngster Kai Jennings to fall to a 3-2 defeat.
The Tinners were rooted to the bottom of the national league going into the game, having lost 3 games in a row without scoring.
Sutton United were the team just outside the relegation zone on 16 points, four ahead of Truro.
This made the match a ‘must-win’ game for Truro City, as victory would lift them to just one point from safety.
Truro lined up in a 4-1-3-2 formation, with Lavercombe in goal, Bell, Donellan, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Riley-Lowe making up the back four, Rooney in holding midfield, Dean, Deeming and Hasani in attacking midfield, and Johnson-Fisher and Harvey in attack.
A crowd of 2089 fans were in attendance, including 94 Sutton United fans who made the 286-mile trip from Southeast London.
Before the game, our reporter spoke to some Truro City supporters about their thoughts.
One supporter, Shane, predicted a 2-1 win. “Definitely need to win today, if we don’t win today, then I think Truro is back in the National League South.”
He voiced concerns about player fitness, particularly in terms of players who were away on loan at other clubs and need more time to build cohesion with the squad.
Shane praised goalkeeper Dan Lavercombe because “he respects the fans, he’ll come over, shake hands, say thank you”.
He also expressed a desire for “players to shoot when they have the opportunity, not to walk it into the goal, because at the moment that’s what Truro seems to want to do.”
Another supporter, Chris, gave the same prediction, a 2-1 win.
When asked about who he thought the club’s best player was this season, he highlighted right-back Zac Bell.
“Every game he’s been all over the pitch, never stops running… he’s defending all the time but he’s also really good going forward.”
He mentioned that Truro have brought a lot of new players in “either on loan, or from other clubs, and not that many of them have played that many games. So I’d say maybe just use all the players that we’ve brought in this season a little bit more”.
Cole Deeming, who has just joined the club on a short term loan from Championship side West Brom, was straight in the starting XI for this game.
Chris also believed that Truro needed to have a shot more often.
“Shoot when you get the chance. Don’t be afraid, the worst thing that can happen is it sails over the bar. You don’t shoot, you don’t score, it’s that simple. Don’t try and pass the ball into the net, we’re not Man City.”
Truro started the game brightly, but few clear chances followed.
That was until the 27th minute, when Lirak Hasani teed up Will Dean, who struck the ball towards the bottom corner, but it was pushed out for a corner by Sutton keeper Tommy Reid.
Truro had another good chance ten minutes later, when Tyler Harvey found a bit of space in the box after a corner, but his effort was just wide of the post.
Sutton opened the scoring in the 45th minute however, against the run of play, when Jayden Harris found the back of the net from inside the box, following a silky run from Jack Taylor.
Truro forward Dominic Johnson-Fisher suffered a bad injury in the build up to the goal, and was left lying on the pitch as the ball went in, prompting protests from the home players.
The injury has now been found to not be as serious as originally thought, but it looked quite awful at the time, delaying the game for over 10 minutes as the player was stretchered off.
Speaking at half-time, a Truro supporter stated, “Up until we let that goal in, I thought we were the better team, we had more of the ball, we were in their half a lot more. Shame just to concede, worst time to let a goal in.”
He was still confident that Truro could turn the game around in the second half.
The home side nearly conceded just 3 minutes into the second period, however, as Zac Bell lost out to Osman Foyo, but his shot was well saved by Dan Lavercombe.
Sutton did not have to wait long for another chance to extend their lead as Kai Jennings scored a crisply struck effort into the top corner from the edge of the box. 2-0.
Truro did not let their heads drop, and tried to create opportunities for themselves.
They were rewarded in the 63rd minute, as a brilliant cross from Connor Riley-Lowe found the head of Lirak Hasani, who halved the deficit.
Truro kept on pushing forward, and with just under 10 minutes left, Hasani ran down the left, cut inside and fired one in from outside the penalty area.
The ball bounced under Sutton keeper Tommy Reid and over the line. All square.
This sparked absolute pandemonium in the East Stand as the Truro supporters went wild with joy.
Their joy was to be short-lived.
A well crafted move from Sutton just 2 minutes later found Kai Jennings once again, who thumped the ball into the bottom corner.
The match ended, Truro City 2, Sutton United 3.
The defeat put Truro City 7 points adrift from safety.
Truro supporter Chris, speaking after the game said it was “tough to take, after we’d come back from being 2-0 down, you kind of thought we were gonna go on and win it.”
He also praised the team for their efforts, in what was a much improved performance for the side compared to the previous few games.
Truro City’s next home game is against 9th placed Wealdstone, on Tuesday December 16th.