Truro City F.C.

Truro City

Full name	Truro City Football Club
Nickname(s)	City, White Tigers, The Tinmen
Founded	1889
Ground	Treyew Road, Truro (Capacity: 3,500 (1260 seats))
Chairman	Kevin Heaney
Manager	Sean McCarthy
League	Southern League Premier Division
2008–09	Southern League Division One South and West, 1st (Promoted)
Home colours Away colours

Truro City F.C. are a football club based in Truro, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. They currently play in the Southern Premiership following four successive promotions. They are considered by many as one of the favourites for promotion to the Conference South and in doing so will break the British football record for the most successive promotions. They were founding members of the South Western League in 1951 and won the title five times in their history. Apart from a three season spell in the 1970s, when they played in the Cornwall Combination after losing their ground as part of a by-pass development, they remained in the South Western League until 2006, when they joined the Western Football League, achieving promotion from Division One to the Premier Division in their first season.

The club's Chairman Kevin Heaney owns a housing company ^[1] and despite a recent slump in the housing market has continued to attract many players from higher leagues. Mr. Heaney has stated he believes long term due to the population catchment area that Truro City could support a League Two club. However, Mr. Heaney has clearly stated that looking to sell the club before they achieve this level.^[2]. Despite his housing company having gone into liquidation owing £4.5m, he has categorically denied claims that his money is drying up and says that he will continue to fund the club's success ^[3].

Truro were FA Cup regulars through the 1950s, but have been sporadic entrants since and returned to the competition for the 2006–07 season for the first time in 13 years.

History

In 1889 Truro City became one of the founding members of the Cornwall County FA (CCFA). Later in 1889, they played their first game at Truro College against Penzance, winning 7–1. They then switched to Tolgarrick for their future games. Six years later in 1895, they won their first trophy, the Cornwall Senior Cup, beating Launceston 5–0.

In the 1930s Truro left Cornish football for a time, joining the Plymouth and District League, which they went on to win in 1936–37, however as a result of this switch, they were barred from competing the Cornwall Senior Cup, although they were re-admitted again in 1938.

They were founding members of the South Western League in 1951, but stumbled in the initial years, requiring re-election in both of their first two seasons to remain in the league. However, they won the championship five times since, and were only out of the division for three seasons when they lost their ground due to road widening.

In the 2005–06 season, they finished runners-up in the South Western League and were promoted to the Western League Division One, becoming champions at the first attempt. They also won the 2006–07 FA Vase, beating AFC Totton 3–1 in the final, held at the new Wembley Stadium in front of an FA Vase record crowd of 36,232 fans,^[4] becoming the first Cornish football club to win a national trophy.

In their first season in the Western League Premier Division, Truro gained promotion to the Southern League at the first attempt, and became the first Cornish side ever to play in the Southern League, only three promotions from the Football League. They were faced with the longest travelling mileage of any club at their level due to the prevalence of Wiltshire-based clubs in the Western League. Truro are currently the only Cornish club playing in the top ten levels of the English football league system.

Towards the end of the 2007–08 season, after the club's promotion to the Southern League was earned, chairman Kevin Heaney issued a statement reversing an earlier decision to turn the club fully professional for the following season,^[5] which led to the resignation of boss Dave Leonard.^[6] For the remainder of the season, Director of Football Chris Webb took charge, assisted by former boss Dave Newton.^[7]

In May 2008 former Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City striker Sean McCarthy was appointed the new Truro manager and the club appointed Dave Newton as his assistant.

Stadium

Truro City are currently based at Treyew Road, their current home since the mid 1950s. A covered terrace was in place behind one of the goals until the mid 1970s when a road widening scheme resulted in it being removed. Only in recent years have they added to their old stand and erected two new stands on opposite sides of the ground lifting the capacity to approximately 3,000.

In 2005 the club announced plans to build a new 16,000-seater stadium in Truro as a new home for the city's football club.^[8] However, the £12m plans were opposed by some residents who live near the proposed site at Treyew Road.^[9] In 2006, the club revealed plans for a £7m football training complex. The club wanted to build two new pitches and a club house on land in Kenwyn, Truro with a 60-bed hotel and offices at its present Treyew Road base.^[10] However, in 2007, Carrick District Council rejected the plans for the new 16,000-seater stadium, a decision which club chairman Kevin Heaney described as a 'major blow'.^[11] Truro City have started well in the Southern Premier League in the search for a record breaking English record of 5 successive promotions though with only one automatic promotion place and Farnborough the red hot favourites already clear Truro City may have to win the lottery of the play offs to achieve the English record.

Achievements

• FA Vase
  • Winners: (1): 2006–07

• Southern Football League Division One South & West
  • Winners: (1): 2008–09
• Western League Premier Division:
  • Winners: (1): 2007–08

• Western League Division One:
  • Winners: (1): 2006–07

• South Western League:
  • Winners (5): 1960–61, 1969–70, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1997–98
  • Runners-up (7): 1954–55, 1962–63, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1996–97, 2005–06

• South Western League Cup:
  • Winners (3): 1959–60, 1966–67 (Joint), 1992–93
  • Runners-up (6): 1954–55, 1958–59, 1967–68, 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98

• Cornwall Senior Cup:
  • Winners (15): 1894–95, 1901–02, 1902–03, 1910–11, 1923–24, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1937–38, 1958–59, 1966–67, 1969–70, 1994–95, 1997–98, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08

• Durning Lawrence Cornwall Charity Cup:
  • Winners (11): 1911–12, 1912–13, 1919–20, 1925–26, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1949–50, 1964–65, 1980–81
  • Runners-up (9): 1905–06, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1913–14, 1924–25, 1937–38, 1957–58, 1966–67, 2002–03

Records

• Best FA Cup performance: FA Cup Third Round Qualifying 1 time (2009–10)
• Best FA Trophy performance: First Round (2009–10)
• Best FA Vase performance: Winners (2006–07)
• Most League goals in a season (by team): 185 (2006–07, Western Football League Division One, 42 games)
• Most League points in a season: 115 (2006–07, Western Football League Division One, 42 games)

First team squad

No. Position Player GK Tom Brooks GK Martin Rice DF Jake Ash DF Barry McConnell DF Graeme Power DF Martin Watts DF Aaron Pugh DF Santos Gaia DF Shane White MF Steve Adams (on loan from Torquay United)

No. Position Player MF Jamie Dirrane MF Marcus Martin MF Joe Broad MF Andy Taylor MF Les Afful MF Danny Clay FW Stewart Yetton FW Andy Watkins FW Lewis Edwards MF Lee Hodges (on loan from Torquay United)

External links

• Official website
• Truro City at the Football Club History Database
• UNofficial Forum

References

Coordinates: 50°15′33.27″N 5°03′57.36″W / 50.2592417°N 5.0659333°W / 50.2592417; -5.0659333