🔗 Share this article

For the players, staff, and travelling supporters from the Cornish outfit, the gruelling 914-mile round trip to Gateshead was a mixed blessing in the end. The 12-hour bus journey starting in south-west Cornwall travelling the length of England to the north-east region yielded one league point and a free pint or two.

The team tied their National League match at 2-2 away at Gateshead this past Saturday having led 2-0 by the 54th minute, in what is turning out to be a campaign defined by long travels and tireless road trips across England's highways. After goals from Dominic Johnson-Fisher and Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, the hosts fought back through Kain Adom and, in the 70th minute, Frank 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 Truro have made a trek 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, around a two-and-a-half-hour schlep via the A30 to Huish Park, 130 miles each way.

Galvanising Effect from Extended Journeys

On Saturday the first 90 Truro fans to arrive shared a £920 bar tab, sponsored by Sky Bet, with the generous free-drinks 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 from Toronto to London, recognizes the difficulties confronting the club he acquired in 2023 aiming to emulate Wrexham's success.

The extensive travel also brings advantages for the region's first pro football team, he believes. “I’m not going to say it’s a short journey, 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.”

Dedicated Fans Face Long Trips

A committed Truro follower, John Joyce, accepts the reality of extended travel but remains committed, notwithstanding occasional flight issues and wearisome train treks. He calculated the recent trip at roughly £400 in expenses and lost earnings, remarking, “I worked for Nato in the last six years of my career in the navy, and it was a shorter drive from Brussels back to Cornwall than it is from Cornwall to Gateshead.”

As Askey said, after their Carlisle odyssey: “The thing that makes Truro special as a club lies in the fans' unwavering support regardless of circumstances. Last term's promotion success so it was easy to get behind the players, yet the supporters rarely complain and they value the players' efforts.”