Truro City v Chelmsford City, National League South, The Truro City Stadium, Saturday 31st August 2024, 3pm kick-off.
Chelmsford City travel to Cornwall this weekend to face Truro City, in a 330-mile journey trip from Melbourne to the Tinners’ recently opened Truro City Stadium.
Under the guidance of new manager John Askey, Truro City have started the 2024-25 campaign strongly and have collected 10 out of a possible 15 points from their opening five games of the National League South season.
The Clarets have begun the 24-25 season undefeated at home, but have experienced two fruitless trips to Slough Town and Weston-super-Mare away from the EMJ Community Stadium so far this campaign. Robbie Simpson’s squad will be hoping to put this right at the weekend and pick up their first away points of the season during Saturday’s clash in Cornwall.
Team & match stats:
- Truro City have scored nine goals at home so far this season – more than any other side in the National League South.
- Tinners forward Tyler Harvey has scored four National League South goals so far this season, making him the division’s joint-highest goal scorer four games into the 24-25 campaign.
- Truro City’s last home victory over the Clarets was in March 2018.
- The Tinners’ home game against Chelmsford City last season was hosted at the Tiger Turf Stadium – which is located nearer to the EMJ Community Stadium than it is to the new Truro City Stadium.
Highlights of last season’s away game versus Truro City can be seen in the video below.
Opposition:
Truro City won promotion from the Southern League Premier Division South in May 2023, which earned the club a return to the National League South following a four-year absence. Truro’s maiden campaign back in the sixth-tier last season proved to be a turbulent one off-the-pitch; the Tinners played at three different ‘home’ venues – none in Cornwall.
The Tinners begun last season hosting their home matches at Bolitho Park, the home ground of Devon-based side Plymouth Parkway. After being unable to complete a number of their home matches at Bolitho Park in the earlier stages of the 23-24 season, Truro City announced a new ground-sharing agreement in February 2024 with Taunton Town. However, the club suffered from further home fixture postponements at Taunton’s Wordsworth Drive ground, following wet weather across the South West earlier this year. Owing to the club’s desire to fulfil their remaining home fixtures, from March onwards, Truro completed last season’s home games 175-miles away from Cornwall at the Tiger Turf Stadium, which is home to Vanarama National League North side Gloucester City.
Then-manager Paul Wotton impressively steered his side through the backlog of home fixtures they were required to play at the Tiger Turf Stadium, which resulted in Truro completing eight home games in the space of 14 days during the month of April. Wotton’s team ended the 23-24 campaign sitting 15th in the National League South standings – finishing nine points clear of the drop zone. The impressive job which Wotton did resulted in fellow National League South club Torquay United successfully courting the 47-year-old’s services to become the new man in the dugout at Plainmoor.
Ahead of their eagerly anticipated move back to Cornwall this month, Truro replaced Wotton in June with 59-year-old John Askey. Experienced manager Askey has had a successful start to life in the Truro City dugout; he has guided the Tinners to two out of three wins from the games they have played so far at their new home ground. A pivotal figure in Askey’s team up to now has been forward Tyler Harvey. 29-year-old Harvey has been Truro’s leading scorer in each of the past four completed seasons, and has started this season in similar form having scored four goals from his five National League South appearances so far in 24-25.
Team news:
Defenders Cameron James and Geofrey Okonkwo will remain sidelined.
Forward Jake Hyde will be assessed ahead of Saturday’s match. Hyde missed Monday’s game against Chippenham Town after manager Robbie Simpson confirmed he sustained a dead leg during last week’s visit to Weston-super-Mare.
Jordan Greenidge’s move to Essex was confirmed ahead of Monday’s match, and the 24-year-old forward made an instant impact in a Claret shirt after scoring the equalising goal on his debut versus Chippenham Town. Greenidge will now be pushing to make his first City start this weekend.
Getting there:
Supporters travelling by car to Saturday’s match should know that the journey from the EMJ Community Stadium to the Truro City Stadium takes around six hours
Truro train station is situated around three miles away from the Truro City Stadium. Truro train station is served by all Park & Ride bus services, as well as additional services running to Threemilestone. Once supporters reach Truro train station there are regular services which can transport them to the Truro City Stadium quickly and safely.
The Chelmsford City Supporters Club coach is not travelling to Saturday’s game.
Matchday & ticketing information:
Truro City sell match tickets both online and on matchday at the turnstiles. Online tickets are on sale until 11am on Saturday. Online ticket prices are cheaper than matchday turnstile prices. Supporters can click here to buy online tickets for this weekend’s match.
Ticket prices at the turnstiles for Saturday’s match are as follows:
- Adult – £17
- Concession (65 or over, current NHS staff, blue light cardholders, current and ex-armed forces personnel, disabled supporters and students) – £15
- Under 18s- £7
- Under 12s – £5
- Under 5s – Free
- Family (covers two adults and three children of either age category) – £32
Cash or card payments are accepted at the turnstiles.
How to follow the game:
Radio Clarets will provide live audio commentary of proceedings at the Truro City Stadium.
Clarets fans can find pre-match coverage of Saturday’s match and live updates of proceedings in Cornwall by following the club’s X (formerly Twitter) page: @OfficialClarets and Instagram page: chelmsfordcityfc.
Post-match reactions will be found on the club’s website, official social media channels and on ClaretsTV.
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