Double milestone as City beat Truro

In Jerry Gill’s 300th match as manager, a Cody Cooke penalty and Tom Smith’s 50th goal for the club saw City beat Truro City 2-1 at Twerton Park this evening.

City began the game brightly as Dan Hayfield saw his 10th minute header brilliantly saved by Hamon before Richard Chin curled a shot narrowly wide of the far post. However, Chin then pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury and the hosts lost their early momentum. Despite this they broke the deadlock on 28 minutes when Ewan Clark looked to force his way past three Truro defenders only to be sent tumbling. The referee pointed to the spot from where Cooke sent Hamon the wrong way. City pressed for a second after this but it took a great block on 38 minutes from Joe Raynes to deny ex-City player Riley-Lowe an equaliser.

The visitors enjoyed the better of the second half opening exchanges and it was somewhat against the run of play when Elliott Frear’s 61st minute low cross was neatly steered into the net by Smith. Four minutes later Kieran Parselle saw his header come back off the bar as City looked to make the game safe. With 12 minutes left substitute Scott Wilson had the ball into the net from another Frear cross only for a tight offside decision to rule out the effort. And two minutes into stoppage time Riley-Lowe bundled home a corner to make for an unexpectedly nervous end to the game. Bray got free down the left before flashing a low centre across the City box then another corner saw the ball drop for Palmer but he couldn’t keep his shot down from eight yards out. This was the last scare for Romans who could celebrate a fifth successive league win moments later on a notable night for the club.