Truro City 'building foundations' despite poor form

Truro City are four points off safety at the bottom of the National League

Truro City are building the foundations for long-term success, despite their poor league position, says the club's football consultant Alex Black.

The Tinners became the first Cornish side to go professional in the summer after surprising many as they won the National League South title.

They have struggled on the field since promotion, winning just three games and are bottom of the National League after 19 games.

But having moved into their new stadium in the summer of 2024 the club is continuing to improve the infrastructure surrounding a side that was playing in the seventh tier until 2023.

"It's great that the club has the ambition to one day be a Football League team, but that does come with a whole infrastructure that needs to be in place in order to allow you to compete at that," Black told BBC Sport.

"If we're honest, whilst we won the league last year, our infrastructure even for that level below has needed to do some catching up.

"It's one of the things the fans don't see that, if you get your foundations right that we're trying to do, that will help you progress.

"Performances on the pitch are perhaps not where we'd hope they would be, but to a certain degree if you're honest, that's where a lot of people predicted we would be.

"But if we get those foundations right and those infrastructures right, in the long run that's going lead to success for the football club."

Alex Black first became involved with the club when it was taken over by Cornish Pirates in 2019

The changes at Truro - who were sharing a ground in Plymouth for much of the time after they left their Treyew Road home in January 2021 - are not just on the field.

Having gone fully professional they have had to employ more staff to cater for a side that had previously only trained a couple of times a week.

"Probably for the first time ever at the club we do have a chief scout who is able to go out and look at players," Black added.

"We have some analysts that are coming in on internships, who when we find players and players that are put to us, can do a full analysis on them.

"We've got a great media team that is putting together presentations, so when we want to sit down with clubs and players we give ourselves a better chance of selling ourselves to them.

"If you just look at simple things, when you're bringing players at this level and on those sort of wages, which are, even though it's a low budget, is a significant increase in what we've done in the past, you need to be able to do medicals.

"Bar the odd one, Truro have probably never really done medicals before.

"So you have to get a system in place to fully assess the players and make sure that you can give them that commitment of the contract.

"Last year we had a part-time sports therapist, but we also have strength and conditioning and then they've been able to get some interns in as well to assist them with that.

"So you go from a team of one part-time to two full-time and then some assistance as well.

"It's a big change and everything has to gel in and everybody has to manage it together."

Truro City won the National League South title on goal difference last season

Being on a geographic limb in Cornwall, they undertook the longest away trip in English league history last month when they travelled 914 miles in total to Gateshead and back. It means it is a challenge to entice players from much of the country.

On top of that the club has one of the lowest budgets in the league, having only just moved to their new ground and trying to establish themselves in the league.

All of it poses a unique test for Black and manager John Askey.

"It's incredibly difficult, to be honest, but you know, that's the challenge," Black said.

"Money isn't the only answer. What I would say is, whilst on the one hand we do have one of the smaller budgets in the league, the board have still been incredibly supportive.

"The budget that we do have is significantly more than probably the football club's ever had in its history.

"You can't do everything all at once, and it's not just having that budget available, it's having the ability to spend it.

"We all know how beautiful Cornwall is and what a fantastic place to live, but not everybody came down here on holidays every year as a kid so we have to try and persuade them."