Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info It’s been amazing and it is still taking time to sink in really... I don’t think anyone can believe it really, can they?” Those are the words of Truro City’s miracle working manager John Askey as he reflects on Cornwall’s greatest football story - the Tinners’ stunning National South title winning campaign. Just a year ago, there was an air of quiet optimism in the Duchy as it prepared to welcome home a football club that had spent a nomadic four years playing home games over the border and as far as 200 miles away at Gloucester City. But with a stadium being built at Langarth and readied for the 2025/26 season, long-suffering supporters went into the season just happy to be home. With a new manager in Askey - a former National League title winner with Macclesfield Town and National North promotion winner with York City - expectation was minimal at the newly-named TCS (Truro Community Stadium). The club adopted a new nickname as well – Tinners replacing the White Tigers – as the club entered a new but exciting chapter in their 136-year history. Reflecting on that time, Askey said: “Alex (Black, football consultant) was talking about his time at Truro and then when the manager’s job came up, Alex invited me down for an interview. “Obviously I was apprehensive at first because it was so far away. I came down and I looked around the ground and talked to the people involved and it sounded an exciting project. I was at that stage of my life, where I needed something like that, so I took the chance and here we are. “The board wanted me to get us into a position where we’re safe and if we’re touching the play-offs, then that would be remarkable. But the main thing was just to consolidate. “Obviously, the season before had been a struggle - I was told that due to the fact that they hadn’t got their own ground. So the target was to consolidate and then the following season, try and earn money, really.” Things didn’t start well for Truro even though the opening of the new stadium attracted a superb 2,676 spectators on the opening weekend of the season. Visitors Dorking Wanderers – the self-proclaimed pre-season National South title favourites – left with the points after a 2-1 win, but a return of 13 points from their next five games showed this Truro team had character. “We fell short that day,” Askey said. “We hadn’t had long together. It was all new to me and I thought: ‘well, it’s going to be a long season this…’ But then we went to Maidstone (won 2-1) and put on a real good performance and that kick-started our season. Yeah, it was a really good start to the season.” When a team loses a game, it is their response to that defeat which often separates a good team from a great one and a notable aspect of Truro’s success this season was how they reacted to adversity. Rarely did defeat follow defeat with the Tinners quickly back on the bike and finding a victory again. “You need to do that, I think,” Askey said. “If you go through each month, there was teams that had done better and we were never top of the form charts each month, but obviously, over the season, we were more consistent than any other team. “We never really had a blip. We just continued on the same trajectory, really, where all the teams peak and then they drop a bit. I think the only time that we sort of lost two on the trot was probably when one of them was an FA Cup game, so, the consistency was there, which has got us to where we are.” Asked what he put that down to, Askey said: “I think we’ve got the players really fit. They’re a fit bunch, but their attitude is what’s got them there and their honesty. “Some of that was probably what they’d gone through over the last two or three years. They had no place to play and the amount of travelling that they’d done. I think, when they finally got their own ground, with home support and with what had gone on, they’d become resilient and that carried them through.” As the season wore on and Truro remained alongside those top clubs – many of whom with far bigger budgets and full-time players throughout the team – then the Tinners’ focus could be realigned. No longer were they fighting for survival, but something far greater. “Once we were safe, we were in a good position and you’re thinking: ‘well, we’ve played virtually everybody and there’s nobody to fear, so why couldn’t we get in the play-offs?’ “I think it was just after Christmas, really, when we’d played every team and there was no stand-out team and I felt as though we had as good a players as any other club in the league.” Truro ended the season winning ten and drawing three of 15 games, which set them up for that last day clash with St Albans City. But with five other teams also in with a chance of lifting the title, nothing was going to be decided quite literally until the last kick of a ball this season. “I never thought it was going to happen!” Askey said. “Even the day of the game, you didn’t dare think that we were going to do it. For me, it felt like the biggest achievement because nobody’s done it before. It’s making history for Truro and to be at a club where that happens is very rare, so to think that we could actually do it, you didn’t dare think about it.” Truro didn’t just win the league on that dramatic final day, but they did so in style, finding themselves 3-0 up inside the opening ten minutes and going on to win emphatically 5-2. “We didn’t say anything different than what we’ve said previous,” Askey said of his pre-match talk that day. “But I think that shows what they’re made of, because it doesn’t matter what level you play at, when you’ve got to go and win a game and you’ve got to score goals, it takes some doing and it’s not just about ability. It’s about that determination and guts and they showed that in abundance. That was probably our best performance of the season. It showed real character to do that when you really needed to and I learnt from my previous promotions that you can’t have them too wound up, but you can’t have it too flat either.” The question now is what next for Truro City? As a semi-professional club with eight full-time professionals on the books, they are now entering the realms of English football’s much fabled ‘Fifth Division,’ competing against a plethora of former Football League clubs such as Carlisle United, Southend United, Oldham Athletic, Hartlepool United, Rochdale, Yeovil Town and Dagenham & Redbridge. Maybe Torquay United, too. And what won’t be lost on many will be the distances involved to play some of those clubs. “Who knows how far we can go,” Askey said. “It’s the Fifth Division and all the clubs are full-time, so it is going to be difficult in the first year or two because we have to get to that level, but if we can get things in place, then who knows? We have to enjoy this for now and then, myself and others will worry about next season.” Going full-time does come with drawbacks, though. With many players based over the border in Devon, training sessions currently take place in Ashburton, Saltash and in Truro, while many have good jobs with their salary topped up by playing semi-professional football. Jacking those jobs in for a crack at being a professional footballer may sound glamorous, but for some – especially those with families – it might not be affordable, even if it has to be the next step for Truro. “We need to go full-time because you can’t compete if you don’t,” Askey said. “You ony have to look at the amount of travelling – how can you have time off work and travel to Gateshead, Carlisle or Hartlepool next season? You just can’t do that, can you? “Even London games, we are going to be leaving on a Friday, so it is going to be very difficult for the lads, unless they are full-time. We want to try and keep the squad together because they have done so well and have a real feeling for the club, but even if everyone signs, we still need another ten players, so it is important that we keep as many players as we can. “If it’s too much for some lads, then it will be sad because they have put a lot into the football club, especially over the last two or three years, but I don’t think we can compete unless we are full-time.” Crucial to that is building off the pitch and capitalising on the growing interest in the football club. When playing at their old Treyew Road, crowds were scarcely above 500, but since moving into their new home, 42,736 have piled through the turnstiles this season at an average of 1,858 per game. “It shows there is an appetite for football in Cornwall,” Askey said. “It is probably the only county that hasn’t had a League club. “I think it will snowball because once you start to support a club at a certain level, it stays with you and I think that will only get bigger. “It also gives lads the opportunity to play football, they can get associated with the club and then people will look more at Cornish lads because there are plenty of lads in Cornwall that could go on and have a career. Just because of the border, it doesn’t suddenly stop or mean there is no one good enough to play football, just because they are over the border. “Hopefully it will encourage other teams in the areas as well. What we have done can only boost football in Cornwall.” Wise words indeed, but what Truro have done hasn’t just boosted football in Cornwall, it has taken it to a whole new level. And one never before seen west of the Tamar.