v Truro

[Holyport Rebel]

 

(continued)

Truro's new ground, as I've said, is right beside a very large "Park and Drive" car park, with space for dozens and dozens of cars.
It sits alone in an area which has plenty of scope for development.
It felt a bit "open" to the elements, and on a day with not much wind elsewhere, the corner flags were fluttering quite a lot suggesting that on the pitch  there was quite a breeze blowing.   
There isn't a great deal of cover for fans around the ground if it rains..
There's the main stand of course, and a decent covered area behind one of the goals, but if it had been raining yesterday, a lot of the 1,700+ fans would have got wet.
Myself and "Bonjour" took our place among the other Slough fans in the covered stand behind the goal Slough were attacking in the first half.
Surprisingly, there were plenty of Truro fans remaining there too despite their team attacking the other end.
They didn't seem to want to change ends as is usually the case at non-league matches.
The game hadn't been going very long, when the ball seemed to spend too long in our penalty box, and the next moment our net bulged and Truro had scored.  
Being at the other end of the pitch I would find it hard to describe the goal, but a goal it was despite a few failed  attempts to clear the ball away.
The Truro tannoy announcer was a real pain.
Worse I felt than the bloke at St. Albans.
He was another cheer-leader.
I definitely wouldn't swap him for our Tony Randall.
The first half we had several great chances to equalise.
Their goalkeeper sadly made a fantastic save I thought from Edon, but all other reports say it was from Slavi, when a header  from only a few yards out was somehow kept out of his net by the goalies fantastic reactions.
A yard more either side and it would have been 1-1.
John Gilbert had an effort cleared off the line by not one but two Truro defenders.
Not that it was one way traffic ,Truro had chances of course too, but half time came and  a level score board I feel would have been fair.
Probably one of the highlights of the first half, was Warren, who again had managed to find a big plastic bin and drag it to where the other chanting Slough fans were, continued to beat this bin with his drumsticks even as the security marshal was dragging it away from him and taking it back to where Warren had found it !
You couldn't make it up !
We changed ends at half time, and I had a nice chat with Nige (Windsor Rebel), who was staying down in Cornwall for a long weekend. 
A lot of other Slough fans were doing the same.
Second half we never created as clear cut chances as we had in the first.
A great ball in across the area found David, who had a great first touch on his right foot about eight yards out.
For a second he had a perfect view of goal, and I was shouting SHOOT !
So frustratingly he took another touch, and got swallowed up by the Truro defenders.
Truro had a few decent chances second half, to be honest much more than we did, but even so the ball flashed across the Truro box on more than one  occasion with no Slough player able to get on the end of it. 
Truro's second goal looked a strange one from my view at the other end of the pitch.
I haven't seen the video highlights so my original thoughts may be completely wrong, but it reminded  me at the time of that cheating Argentinian Maradona's goal v England in Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.
The ball appeared to be high in the air with Charlie getting to it to make a easy catch, when suddenly this Truro player seemed to be in front of Charlie and just headed the ball into the net.   
Then the Truro tannoy announcer came over the airwaves.
Not just announcing the name of the scorer in delirious, excited tones, but shouting out loudly that it was now
" Truro City TWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  !!!!!!!!!!   Slough Town nil  "
Yes mate, we can count.
People from Berkshire can count up to two.
Perhaps people in Truro can't.
Really unnecessary I thought.
We had one more half chance, a great cross into the middle that Slavi headed over.
And that was that. 
The ref ( who I thought had had a decent game), blew his final whistle and we had lost ,2-0.
Usually, the Slough players and management only come over for high fives with us fans when we have won, but pleasingly they came right over to us and went along the line of Slough fans to do so even though we had lost.
No disgrace at all today.
We had battled hard and, given the breaks, another day could have come away with a point 
I thought 2-0 flattered Truro. 
For a team near the top of the table I was quite disappointed in them.
They do not have the "flair" or "skill" of say a Dorking or Worthing, one of their best attacking options is a bloke with a great long throw, but what they do have I thought is a very strong, tough and difficult to break down defence.
They smothered and were all over our attacking players all match, both by fair means and quite often by foul.
It works for them.
Leaving the ground , myself and "Bonjour" walked in the day's late sunshine to the train station.
Arriving there, I went to look at a departure board, and was very pleased to see that the train we were catching that should have taken us all the way through to Reading, was now showing all the stops the train would make including those after Bristol.
If it was going to terminate at Bristol I wouldn't expect any stations after that to appear on the screen, but they did.
I rang my wife, and she told me that yes, it did seem as if everything was as it should be with regard to the train, so that was great news.
The train arrived on time at 18.31, and us fans and the team got on.
It was a nice journey for the first hour and a half, until we got to Bristol.
I ate my grub.
I much prefer eating my food on the way back from matches.
I read the Truro match programme.
In it, it reported that coming back from their match at Tonbridge last Saturday, the team bus broke down at Cobham Services, on the M25.
A mechanic came out, couldn't fix the problem, and they had to wait until 11pm for a replacement coach to arrive.
That would have been a VERY long day.
Then we pulled into Bristol Temple Meads station, at just after 10pm.
At the time we were running about three minutes late, and I only had nine minutes from the time the train was supposed to arrive in Reading, to when my train to Maidenhead was supposed to leave.
So I had six minutes leeway.
Going slowly along the platform at Bristol before coming to a stop, I could see literally hundreds of people on the platform, all wanting to get on our train.   
"Oh for crying out loud" I thought to myself.
It had been a nice, fairly quiet journey back so far.
Not any more.
These hundreds of people weren't just people.
They were worse than that.
Flippin'  rugby fans.
And even worse than that.
STUDENT flippin' rugby fans.
There were so many that our train pulled out of Bristol now nine minutes late, which meant that this train would pull into Reading just as my train to Maidenhead was pulling out.
Doh Doh Doh !
I'd had enough of students when I worked at the train station at Egham for years and had to deal with hoards of them from the nearby Royal Holloway Uni.
More got on the train at the next stop, Bath Spa.   
We never made up any of this lost time before we pulled into Reading station, about 80 minutes later.
Getting off the train at Reading, John (Bonjour) looked across the platforms and saw that the Maidenhead train was still at its platform.
"Great, just in time for us to see it go"  I thought, and we didn't rush over to it 'cos we were sure it was about to depart.
Taking our time to walk to the stairs, not rushing along the stairway to get to the other platform , and then  slowly starting to walk down the stairs to where the Maidenhead train would surely have just left, we saw that it was still there !
We dashed gratefully on board, as did Trent and Scott and a few other players.
First stop was Twyford, where all of the Slough players and management on board got off, not without first saying a very pleasant "cheerio"  to us fans.
God knows what time they would get home.
Next station was Maidenhead, when myself and John got off the train and walked to the station exit.
John waited there for his wife to pick him up, while I walked the ten minutes to my car, and drove the short distance home. 
Walked through my front door a few minutes after midnight.
Non football fans might think this sort of behaviour "mad".
On trains for about 11 hours, travelling over 500 miles, to watch a game lasting 90 minutes which we don't really expect to win.
It was great though !
What a fantastic day!
Any Slough fan who didn't go yesterday,  next season, if there is no supporters coach ,[and provided of course you can find the money for the train fare, which isn't easy these days ) go on the train to Truro when we play away to them.
(Unless Truro do us all a favour and get promoted !)
I'm sure you will have a great time.
Believe me, I'm very, very pleased I went yesterday, even though we lost. 

  
 

  
 .
 
 
 
 
 

Edited February 23 by Holyport Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

Excellent travel blog HR  👍

[Bernie Gogan]

On 23/02/2025 at 15:03, Holyport Rebel said:

 

(continued)

Truro's new ground, as I've said, is right beside a very large "Park and Drive" car park, with space for dozens and dozens of cars.
It sits alone in an area which has plenty of scope for development.
It felt a bit "open" to the elements, and on a day with not much wind elsewhere, the corner flags were fluttering quite a lot suggesting that on the pitch  there was quite a breeze blowing.   
There isn't a great deal of cover for fans around the ground if it rains..
There's the main stand of course, and a decent covered area behind one of the goals, but if it had been raining yesterday, a lot of the 1,700+ fans would have got wet.
Myself and "Bonjour" took our place among the other Slough fans in the covered stand behind the goal Slough were attacking in the first half.
Surprisingly, there were plenty of Truro fans remaining there too despite their team attacking the other end.
They didn't seem to want to change ends as is usually the case at non-league matches.
The game hadn't been going very long, when the ball seemed to spend too long in our penalty box, and the next moment our net bulged and Truro had scored.  
Being at the other end of the pitch I would find it hard to describe the goal, but a goal it was despite a few failed  attempts to clear the ball away.
The Truro tannoy announcer was a real pain.
Worse I felt than the bloke at St. Albans.
He was another cheer-leader.
I definitely wouldn't swap him for our Tony Randall.
The first half we had several great chances to equalise.
Their goalkeeper sadly made a fantastic save I thought from Edon, but all other reports say it was from Slavi, when a header  from only a few yards out was somehow kept out of his net by the goalies fantastic reactions.
A yard more either side and it would have been 1-1.
John Gilbert had an effort cleared off the line by not one but two Truro defenders.
Not that it was one way traffic ,Truro had chances of course too, but half time came and  a level score board I feel would have been fair.
Probably one of the highlights of the first half, was Warren, who again had managed to find a big plastic bin and drag it to where the other chanting Slough fans were, continued to beat this bin with his drumsticks even as the security marshal was dragging it away from him and taking it back to where Warren had found it !
You couldn't make it up !
We changed ends at half time, and I had a nice chat with Nige (Windsor Rebel), who was staying down in Cornwall for a long weekend. 
A lot of other Slough fans were doing the same.
Second half we never created as clear cut chances as we had in the first.
A great ball in across the area found David, who had a great first touch on his right foot about eight yards out.
For a second he had a perfect view of goal, and I was shouting SHOOT !
So frustratingly he took another touch, and got swallowed up by the Truro defenders.
Truro had a few decent chances second half, to be honest much more than we did, but even so the ball flashed across the Truro box on more than one  occasion with no Slough player able to get on the end of it. 
Truro's second goal looked a strange one from my view at the other end of the pitch.
I haven't seen the video highlights so my original thoughts may be completely wrong, but it reminded  me at the time of that cheating Argentinian Maradona's goal v England in Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.
The ball appeared to be high in the air with Charlie getting to it to make a easy catch, when suddenly this Truro player seemed to be in front of Charlie and just headed the ball into the net.   
Then the Truro tannoy announcer came over the airwaves.
Not just announcing the name of the scorer in delirious, excited tones, but shouting out loudly that it was now
" Truro City TWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  !!!!!!!!!!   Slough Town nil  "
Yes mate, we can count.
People from Berkshire can count up to two.
Perhaps people in Truro can't.
Really unnecessary I thought.
We had one more half chance, a great cross into the middle that Slavi headed over.
And that was that. 
The ref ( who I thought had had a decent game), blew his final whistle and we had lost ,2-0.
Usually, the Slough players and management only come over for high fives with us fans when we have won, but pleasingly they came right over to us and went along the line of Slough fans to do so even though we had lost.
No disgrace at all today.
We had battled hard and, given the breaks, another day could have come away with a point 
I thought 2-0 flattered Truro. 
For a team near the top of the table I was quite disappointed in them.
They do not have the "flair" or "skill" of say a Dorking or Worthing, one of their best attacking options is a bloke with a great long throw, but what they do have I thought is a very strong, tough and difficult to break down defence.
They smothered and were all over our attacking players all match, both by fair means and quite often by foul.
It works for them.
Leaving the ground , myself and "Bonjour" walked in the day's late sunshine to the train station.
Arriving there, I went to look at a departure board, and was very pleased to see that the train we were catching that should have taken us all the way through to Reading, was now showing all the stops the train would make including those after Bristol.
If it was going to terminate at Bristol I wouldn't expect any stations after that to appear on the screen, but they did.
I rang my wife, and she told me that yes, it did seem as if everything was as it should be with regard to the train, so that was great news.
The train arrived on time at 18.31, and us fans and the team got on.
It was a nice journey for the first hour and a half, until we got to Bristol.
I ate my grub.
I much prefer eating my food on the way back from matches.
I read the Truro match programme.
In it, it reported that coming back from their match at Tonbridge last Saturday, the team bus broke down at Cobham Services, on the M25.
A mechanic came out, couldn't fix the problem, and they had to wait until 11pm for a replacement coach to arrive.
That would have been a VERY long day.
Then we pulled into Bristol Temple Meads station, at just after 10pm.
At the time we were running about three minutes late, and I only had nine minutes from the time the train was supposed to arrive in Reading, to when my train to Maidenhead was supposed to leave.
So I had six minutes leeway.
Going slowly along the platform at Bristol before coming to a stop, I could see literally hundreds of people on the platform, all wanting to get on our train.   
"Oh for crying out loud" I thought to myself.
It had been a nice, fairly quiet journey back so far.
Not any more.
These hundreds of people weren't just people.
They were worse than that.
Flippin'  rugby fans.
And even worse than that.
STUDENT flippin' rugby fans.
There were so many that our train pulled out of Bristol now nine minutes late, which meant that this train would pull into Reading just as my train to Maidenhead was pulling out.
Doh Doh Doh !
I'd had enough of students when I worked at the train station at Egham for years and had to deal with hoards of them from the nearby Royal Holloway Uni.
More got on the train at the next stop, Bath Spa.   
We never made up any of this lost time before we pulled into Reading station, about 80 minutes later.
Getting off the train at Reading, John (Bonjour) looked across the platforms and saw that the Maidenhead train was still at its platform.
"Great, just in time for us to see it go"  I thought, and we didn't rush over to it 'cos we were sure it was about to depart.
Taking our time to walk to the stairs, not rushing along the stairway to get to the other platform , and then  slowly starting to walk down the stairs to where the Maidenhead train would surely have just left, we saw that it was still there !
We dashed gratefully on board, as did Trent and Scott and a few other players.
First stop was Twyford, where all of the Slough players and management on board got off, not without first saying a very pleasant "cheerio"  to us fans.
God knows what time they would get home.
Next station was Maidenhead, when myself and John got off the train and walked to the station exit.
John waited there for his wife to pick him up, while I walked the ten minutes to my car, and drove the short distance home. 
Walked through my front door a few minutes after midnight.
Non football fans might think this sort of behaviour "mad".
On trains for about 11 hours, travelling over 500 miles, to watch a game lasting 90 minutes which we don't really expect to win.
It was great though !
What a fantastic day!
Any Slough fan who didn't go yesterday,  next season, if there is no supporters coach ,[and provided of course you can find the money for the train fare, which isn't easy these days ) go on the train to Truro when we play away to them.
(Unless Truro do us all a favour and get promoted !)
I'm sure you will have a great time.
Believe me, I'm very, very pleased I went yesterday, even though we lost. 

  
 

  
 .
 
 
 
 
 

Our very own Slough Town Travel Blogger! Thanks Kev, great stuff.

[Bernie Gogan]

In frustration at missing out on Truro (my choice) and knowing a couple or more Maidenhead fans, I went to their game versus Yeovil. My distaste for Yeovil is a result of their manager's attitude to so called lesser teams e.g. us last season, and I was hoping the home team would turn them over. Not the case of course although neither team deserved to win, but Yeovil did thanks to a massive deflection off their striker Nouble and an awful refereeing decision which saw our ex player Tyrese Dyce penalised for a fair challenge and then booked! The free kick into the box resulted in a scruffy 2nd goal and consigned our local rivals to the relegation places again.

Of course I'd relish a return to our local derbies , but I'm still convinced they'll escape the drop again.

[DonnyNo6]

On 23/02/2025 at 15:03, Holyport Rebel said:

 

(continued)

Truro's new ground, as I've said, is right beside a very large "Park and Drive" car park, with space for dozens and dozens of cars.
It sits alone in an area which has plenty of scope for development.
It felt a bit "open" to the elements, and on a day with not much wind elsewhere, the corner flags were fluttering quite a lot suggesting that on the pitch  there was quite a breeze blowing.   
There isn't a great deal of cover for fans around the ground if it rains..
There's the main stand of course, and a decent covered area behind one of the goals, but if it had been raining yesterday, a lot of the 1,700+ fans would have got wet.
Myself and "Bonjour" took our place among the other Slough fans in the covered stand behind the goal Slough were attacking in the first half.
Surprisingly, there were plenty of Truro fans remaining there too despite their team attacking the other end.
They didn't seem to want to change ends as is usually the case at non-league matches.
The game hadn't been going very long, when the ball seemed to spend too long in our penalty box, and the next moment our net bulged and Truro had scored.  
Being at the other end of the pitch I would find it hard to describe the goal, but a goal it was despite a few failed  attempts to clear the ball away.
The Truro tannoy announcer was a real pain.
Worse I felt than the bloke at St. Albans.
He was another cheer-leader.
I definitely wouldn't swap him for our Tony Randall.
The first half we had several great chances to equalise.
Their goalkeeper sadly made a fantastic save I thought from Edon, but all other reports say it was from Slavi, when a header  from only a few yards out was somehow kept out of his net by the goalies fantastic reactions.
A yard more either side and it would have been 1-1.
John Gilbert had an effort cleared off the line by not one but two Truro defenders.
Not that it was one way traffic ,Truro had chances of course too, but half time came and  a level score board I feel would have been fair.
Probably one of the highlights of the first half, was Warren, who again had managed to find a big plastic bin and drag it to where the other chanting Slough fans were, continued to beat this bin with his drumsticks even as the security marshal was dragging it away from him and taking it back to where Warren had found it !
You couldn't make it up !
We changed ends at half time, and I had a nice chat with Nige (Windsor Rebel), who was staying down in Cornwall for a long weekend. 
A lot of other Slough fans were doing the same.
Second half we never created as clear cut chances as we had in the first.
A great ball in across the area found David, who had a great first touch on his right foot about eight yards out.
For a second he had a perfect view of goal, and I was shouting SHOOT !
So frustratingly he took another touch, and got swallowed up by the Truro defenders.
Truro had a few decent chances second half, to be honest much more than we did, but even so the ball flashed across the Truro box on more than one  occasion with no Slough player able to get on the end of it. 
Truro's second goal looked a strange one from my view at the other end of the pitch.
I haven't seen the video highlights so my original thoughts may be completely wrong, but it reminded  me at the time of that cheating Argentinian Maradona's goal v England in Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.
The ball appeared to be high in the air with Charlie getting to it to make a easy catch, when suddenly this Truro player seemed to be in front of Charlie and just headed the ball into the net.   
Then the Truro tannoy announcer came over the airwaves.
Not just announcing the name of the scorer in delirious, excited tones, but shouting out loudly that it was now
" Truro City TWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  !!!!!!!!!!   Slough Town nil  "
Yes mate, we can count.
People from Berkshire can count up to two.
Perhaps people in Truro can't.
Really unnecessary I thought.
We had one more half chance, a great cross into the middle that Slavi headed over.
And that was that. 
The ref ( who I thought had had a decent game), blew his final whistle and we had lost ,2-0.
Usually, the Slough players and management only come over for high fives with us fans when we have won, but pleasingly they came right over to us and went along the line of Slough fans to do so even though we had lost.
No disgrace at all today.
We had battled hard and, given the breaks, another day could have come away with a point 
I thought 2-0 flattered Truro. 
For a team near the top of the table I was quite disappointed in them.
They do not have the "flair" or "skill" of say a Dorking or Worthing, one of their best attacking options is a bloke with a great long throw, but what they do have I thought is a very strong, tough and difficult to break down defence.
They smothered and were all over our attacking players all match, both by fair means and quite often by foul.
It works for them.
Leaving the ground , myself and "Bonjour" walked in the day's late sunshine to the train station.
Arriving there, I went to look at a departure board, and was very pleased to see that the train we were catching that should have taken us all the way through to Reading, was now showing all the stops the train would make including those after Bristol.
If it was going to terminate at Bristol I wouldn't expect any stations after that to appear on the screen, but they did.
I rang my wife, and she told me that yes, it did seem as if everything was as it should be with regard to the train, so that was great news.
The train arrived on time at 18.31, and us fans and the team got on.
It was a nice journey for the first hour and a half, until we got to Bristol.
I ate my grub.
I much prefer eating my food on the way back from matches.
I read the Truro match programme.
In it, it reported that coming back from their match at Tonbridge last Saturday, the team bus broke down at Cobham Services, on the M25.
A mechanic came out, couldn't fix the problem, and they had to wait until 11pm for a replacement coach to arrive.
That would have been a VERY long day.
Then we pulled into Bristol Temple Meads station, at just after 10pm.
At the time we were running about three minutes late, and I only had nine minutes from the time the train was supposed to arrive in Reading, to when my train to Maidenhead was supposed to leave.
So I had six minutes leeway.
Going slowly along the platform at Bristol before coming to a stop, I could see literally hundreds of people on the platform, all wanting to get on our train.   
"Oh for crying out loud" I thought to myself.
It had been a nice, fairly quiet journey back so far.
Not any more.
These hundreds of people weren't just people.
They were worse than that.
Flippin'  rugby fans.
And even worse than that.
STUDENT flippin' rugby fans.
There were so many that our train pulled out of Bristol now nine minutes late, which meant that this train would pull into Reading just as my train to Maidenhead was pulling out.
Doh Doh Doh !
I'd had enough of students when I worked at the train station at Egham for years and had to deal with hoards of them from the nearby Royal Holloway Uni.
More got on the train at the next stop, Bath Spa.   
We never made up any of this lost time before we pulled into Reading station, about 80 minutes later.
Getting off the train at Reading, John (Bonjour) looked across the platforms and saw that the Maidenhead train was still at its platform.
"Great, just in time for us to see it go"  I thought, and we didn't rush over to it 'cos we were sure it was about to depart.
Taking our time to walk to the stairs, not rushing along the stairway to get to the other platform , and then  slowly starting to walk down the stairs to where the Maidenhead train would surely have just left, we saw that it was still there !
We dashed gratefully on board, as did Trent and Scott and a few other players.
First stop was Twyford, where all of the Slough players and management on board got off, not without first saying a very pleasant "cheerio"  to us fans.
God knows what time they would get home.
Next station was Maidenhead, when myself and John got off the train and walked to the station exit.
John waited there for his wife to pick him up, while I walked the ten minutes to my car, and drove the short distance home. 
Walked through my front door a few minutes after midnight.
Non football fans might think this sort of behaviour "mad".
On trains for about 11 hours, travelling over 500 miles, to watch a game lasting 90 minutes which we don't really expect to win.
It was great though !
What a fantastic day!
Any Slough fan who didn't go yesterday,  next season, if there is no supporters coach ,[and provided of course you can find the money for the train fare, which isn't easy these days ) go on the train to Truro when we play away to them.
(Unless Truro do us all a favour and get promoted !)
I'm sure you will have a great time.
Believe me, I'm very, very pleased I went yesterday, even though we lost. 

  
 

  
 .
 
 
 
 
 

One of their supporters told me after the match that the Park and Ride area holds 1,200 cars.