🔗 Share this article

Regarding the squad, management, and away fans from the Cornish outfit, the gruelling 914-mile round trip to face Gateshead proved bittersweet in the end. The 12-hour bus journey starting in south-west Cornwall all the way up England’s spine to the north-east region yielded one league point and a free pint or two.

Truro drew their National League match two goals apiece at Gateshead International Stadium this past Saturday having led 2-0 by the 54th minute, during what is becoming a season of epic train journeys and tireless road trips across England's highways. Following strikes by Dominic Johnson-Fisher and Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, the hosts fought back via Adom and a 70th-minute equalizer from Nouble.

“Clubs that come down to us, most of them are flying down and staying over on the Friday, so for us to have to do it on the coach is not ideal, but because we have so many long journeys, that’s the way we have to do it.” — John Askey

Earlier in the season the club undertook a journey to Carlisle for a 3-0 defeat covering 878 miles. Such is the club’s relative isolation, their shortest away match is at Yeovil Town, a roughly two-and-a-half-hour drive along the A30 to Huish Park, a 130-mile trip each direction.

Galvanising Impact from Extended Journeys

On Saturday the first 90 Truro fans to arrive shared a £920 bar tab, sponsored by Sky Bet, the complimentary beverage fund representing £1 for every mile travelled. Fortunately, the squad could interrupt their travel with a pause at Derby's training facility.

Their chairman from Canada, Eric Perez, accustomed to long-haul trips as he frequently flies seven hours long-haul from Toronto to London, understands the challenge facing the club he took over in 2023 with ambitions of “doing a Wrexham”.

The extensive travel has benefits too for Cornwall’s first professional football club, in his view. “It's certainly not a brief trip, It’s a ridiculously long journey in context,” Perez stated. “But what that does is galvanise our side even further – everybody spends time together, we are accustomed to journeying as a group.”

Loyal Supporters Face Lengthy Travels

One of Truro’s stalwart supporters, John Joyce, accepts the reality of extended travel but remains committed, notwithstanding occasional flight issues and exhausting rail journeys. He calculated the recent trip at roughly £400 in expenses and lost earnings, remarking, “During my naval career with Nato, the drive from Brussels to Cornwall was shorter than from Cornwall to Gateshead.”

As Askey said, following the Carlisle expedition: “Truro's uniqueness as a club is that the supporters get behind the team regardless of circumstances. Last term's promotion success made it easy to back the squad, but from what I know the fans never even moan and they value the players' efforts.”