Truro City: From homeless club to league champions

Truro City won the National League title on goal difference from nearest neighbours Torquay United

Truro City's promotion to the National League marks the greatest moment in Cornwall's footballing history.

Known sport-wise as a rugby union hotbed, this county on the South West peninsula is more associated with holidays, cream teas and pasties than high-flying football.

But come next season, the Tinners will become the first side from the county to play in the fifth tier of English football, after their dramatic 5-2 final-day win over St Albans City saw them claim the title on goal difference from Torquay United.

Their victory comes a year after they were still playing 'home' games at Gloucester City - a 390-mile round-trip - and marks the highest of highs for a club that has also seen its fair share of lows.

"I cannot believe that we've done," said Truro's long-serving captain Connor Riley-Lowe.

"The club's had some really tough times over the last few years and especially last year playing in Gloucester three times a week.

"We've got jobs, we've got kids, people don't realise the amount of effort that we put into it sometimes.

"What we've done this season is just reward for the last four seasons of having no home and having to graft through."

Ups and downs

Stewart Yetton (left) helped Truro City win the FA Vase in 2007 - the first final played at the 'new' Wembley Stadium

The most comparable achievement to Saturday's league title win is probably when Truro won the FA Vase in 2007.

Current assistant manager Stewart Yetton - who is the club's all-time record goalscorer - was part of the side that won at Wembley 18 years ago but says winning the National League South is a much greater achievement.

"Wembley was unbelievable, it was amazing the memories that we created that day," he said.

"Winning that is very different to winning the league - we've won a league that we had no right to win.

"When we went up through the leagues for a few years, we had bigger budgets and we should have done it. We've just won a league where we've probably got a bottom-six, bottom-seven budget.

"This is the greatest achievement that Truro City has ever delivered - Cornwall's got its first National League club."

Few clubs can claim to have had the rollercoaster history of Truro City in the past 20 years.

Under former owner Kevin Heaney, they stormed up the regional leagues in the West Country, winning five promotions in six years, and in 2007 were the first side to win a final at the newly-rebuilt Wembley Stadium when they beat AFC Totton 3-1 to win the FA Vase.

Under Heaney's ownership they continued to climb the ranks until they reached what is now National League South in 2011.

But as property developer Heaney's business suffered in the global economic crisis of the time, so did Truro, and the club went into administration in August 2012.

They were hours from being expelled from the league before local businessmen Peter Masters and Philip Perryman stepped in and saved the club in October of that year.

Thereafter, the team bounced between the Southern League and the National League South, and in 2014, the club's Treyew Road home was sold to developers.

Owner Eric Perez joined in Truro's celebrations

In 2019, Cornish Pirates rugby club took over Truro with the aim of building the Stadium for Cornwall - a venue capable of hosting both sides.

After a few planning delays, work began on Treyew Road in October 2020, leaving the club homeless - they groundshared with the likes of Torquay, Plymouth Parkway and even briefly with Gloucester City.

After funding issues with the Stadium for Cornwall, Truro went their own way and built their own ground, which opened last August, having been taken over by Canadian investors.

But since returning to Cornwall, Truro have flourished - they have the third-highest attendances in the league and have had 3,000-plus sell-outs for their final two matches of the season.

"I've had a feeling all year that we could do something like this, and to actually do it is a culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of people and it's the best feeling in the world," owner Eric Perez told BBC Sport.

"Everything we've done since we've taken over is to build this club bigger and better and fulfil its potential and fulfil Cornwall's sporting potential.

"So we're going to do everything we can to do that, nothing will stop us, no-one will stop us and this is for Cornwall. Cornwall deserves it."

'A long old poke'

John Askey (left) and assistant Stewart Yetton have guided Truro City to their greatest-ever achievement

Comedian Paul Whitehouse once played a Plymouth Argyle fan in a car insurance advert - "a long old poke", he said when describing an away trip to Newcastle.

Well for Truro fans - and those of their opponents next season - it will be even longer.

Should Gateshead fail to progress through the National League play-offs, it would mean their 920-odd mile round trip to Truro would become the longest away journey in English football - comfortably beating Argyle's 815-or-so miles to Sunderland and back this season.

Next season, Truro's 'local' derby will be a 280-mile round-trip to Yeovil Town - but many of the away days will be more than double that.

There could also be lengthy journeys to Hartlepool United, York City, Boston United and Carlisle United, although none are as long as Whitley Bay's trip to Truro in the FA Vase in 2008 - a round-trip of more than 940 miles.

"I'll probably have to renew my passport and get a visa," joked manager John Askey.

"It would probably be the longest trips in English football that has ever been.

"How we're going to navigate that I don't know, but we'll have to sort it out - it's a nice problem to have."

But for Askey, it more than vindicates what was seen as one of the most surprising non-league managerial appointment of last summer.

The former Port Vale and Shrewsbury Town manager has had great success in the fifth and sixth tiers. He led Macclesfield Town to the National League title in 2018 and guided York City to promotion from National League North in 2022.

But he had never managed a club based further south than Shrewsbury and never led a side in National League South - let alone one that had just moved to a new ground and had no idea about how many people would turn out to watch them.

So what has been the secret of his success?

"I think having honest players is a big thing," he said.

"The things that Truro have to put up with regards the travelling, training facilities, it's probably the most honest group of players I've ever had. They're amazing.

"To have achieved what they've achieved, that's probably why it gives me as much pleasure with this as it as with any promotion that I've had.

"Whatever club you go to you want to do well because it means a lot to supporters and means a lot to people who were running the football club, and obviously it means a lot to myself to win something."