Parkway claim all 3 points with fine win over promotion chasing Truro City
Parkway “visited” ground sharers 3rd placed and promotion contenders Truro City looking for a vast improvement on Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Hanwell Town. 4 changes were made with debutant loanee Shaun Semmens staring in place of Jack Arthur in goal and Harrison King, Callum Hall and Adam Carter replacing Aaron Goulty, Gabe Billington and Ben Seymour respectively.
The game began at a steady pace with Jack Crago planting a header from an early Parkway free kick on to the roof of the net. Truro began to control the pace of the game and on 11 minutes a through ball from Ryan Brett towards Rocky Neal saw Shaun Semmens quickly off his line to clear the danger. Truro continued to look the more threatening and on 13 minutes Neal combined well with Plymouth Argyle loanee and once a Parkway loanee Finley Craske whose well-directed delivery into the danger area just evaded Dan Sullivan.
Parkway were being forced to defend with Austen Booth, Toby Down and Mikey Williams looking composed and organised. Parkway gradually began to gain more possession in midfield with Dan Rooney and Callum Hall winning their fair share of second balls and looking to initiate attacking moves.
 Truro City FCPlymouth Parkway 
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With both sides competing well and defences generally on top few chances were being created as the game developed into a midfield battle. On 18 minutes a Truro passage of play switching from right to left saw a Shane White cross pushed behind by Semmens with Parkway comfortably dealing with the resultant corner.
The game went through a fairly passive passage of play as both sides looked to create openings with neither totally dominant. However on 27 minutes, arguably against the run of play, Parkway took the lead. A long ball into the 18 yard area by Booth saw Adam Carter win a header with former Truro player Rio Garside on the right reacting quickest to the loose ball and curling a superb first time left footed angled strike into the far corner past a despairing dive by James Hamon.
Truro then dictated a phase of play with Connor Riley Lowe and Ryan Brett delivering a couple of crosses forcing corners which were defended solidly by the Parkway defence with Semmens remaining relatively untested.
Truro continued to threaten with Sullivan influential in midfield and involved in most of their build up play and with Parkway unable to create too much going forward the home side drew level in the 34th minute.
A corner from the left was only partially cleared with Truro recycling the ball and Will Dean crossing deep towards the far post with Parkway again failing to clear their lines with the ball dropping to the unmarked Harvey Greenslade who drilled home a left footed drive from around 8 yards beating Semmens low to his left.
Truro continued to control the pace of the game with Parkway competing well in midfield but their final ball lacked the quality to trouble the home defence with Hamon remaining untested. On 36 minutes Greenslade saw his close range header easily saved as Truro continued in the ascendancy and approaching half time they forced a couple of corners which lacked quality of delivery and were comfortably defended.
A fairly even half with Truro controlling the majority of possession but unable to create many clear chances. The stunning Parkway goal was not in keeping with the quality of the rest of the game with the sides level at the break just about a fair reflection.
The second half started in controversial fashion with a long ball straight from the Truro kick off being grabbed by Semmens just outside the right side of his 18 yard area. After much deliberation he was shown a yellow card for handball when the home side were clearly calling for a red.
The resultant free kick drilled in by Dean was smothered at the near post by Semmens. Truro started the half the sharper with Garside seeing yellow for not retreating from a free kick in the 47th minute. Craske and Neal linked well along the right in the 50th minute with Harrison King doing well to head clear from a dangerous cross.
Parkway made their first change on n 53 minutes with Carter making way for Ben Seymour who was not deemed fully fit to start the game. Sullivan was booked in the 55th minute for persistent infringements having previously been warned on a couple of occasions.
From the resultant free kick Crago saw his header cleared with Truro breaking clear along the left but the final cross again lacked quality.
Play went through a scrappy phase lacking neither quality nor direction with little being created. Hall then saw yellow for a foul on Sullivan with Dean blasting the free kick from around 40 yards well wide.
An incident on 64 minutes if not changing the course of the game certainly had a significant impact on it. Sullivan received his second yellow card in 9 minutes for an unnecessarily robust challenge on Hall wide on the right as Hall attempted to clear the ball. With the departure of Sullivan,
Truro began to lose their control in midfield and on 69 minutes Parkway almost regained the lead. A Parkway free kick on the left saw the ball cleared only as far as Garside whose cross was headed narrowly wide by Down. With Parkway now able to retain more possession in midfield, a patient passage of play in the 73rd minute involving Garside, Rooney and King saw the latter’s low cross just evade Seymour with Hamon gathering low down at his near post.
Booth then did well to head clear a Truro free kick with Parkway breaking clear and Garside seeing his shot blocked after good work by Crago along the left.
Both sides made changes in the 77th minute with Dave Barker replacing King for Parkway with Matt Wright coming on for Greenslade for the hosts.
Parkway continued to look the more threatening but their final ball lacked the quality of their approach play with Hamon comfortably gathering a couple of crosses. However in the 81st minute he was beaten as Parkway regained the lead. A strong run by Lane along the left saw his low cross slip past Hamon at his near post, and rebound off the far post and roll over the line back towards the opposite post.
Entering the final stages of the game Yassine En-Neyah replaced Brett on 81 minutes for the hosts and on 85 minutes Aaron Goulty came on for Hall with Ben Adelsbury replacing White. With Truro throwing more men forward and becoming more direct, they almost drew level in the 88th minute. Riley-Lowe crossed from the left with Adelsbury’s header being superbly clawed away at full stretch by Semmens with En-Neyah just failing to stab the loose ball home from close range and Booth hacking clear to safety.
In the 5 minutes of added time, Truro continued to press with Adelsbury firing way over from distance as Parkway were being forced to defend in numbers. With Parkway looking to manage the game out, Lane was booked for time wasting in the 92nd minute before they sealed the game in the final minute.
With everyone now pushed forward for Truro, Parkway broke clear with Crago releasing Seymour who raced unchallenged into the penalty area and before he was able to get his shot away was clattered by Hamon who was yellow carded. With the last kick of the game Seymour coolly and confidently despatched the spot kick sending Hamon the wrong way.
A competitive game with neither side ever fully in command, defences generally on top and few clear cut chances being created. A committed and determined Parkway took full advantage of playing against 10 men for the last 25 minutes by continually stretching play and defending solidly for the final 10 minutes when coming under Truro pressure and ground out the win which sees them remain in 11th place and inflict a first home defeat of the season on Truro.
They now have a short recovery period before heading up the A38/M5 on Wednesday for a Devon derby when they face 12th placed Tiverton Town who were beaten 2-1 at leaders Weston upper Mare today.
The makeup of the squad remains to be seen as the relentless end of season fixture pile up has resulted in some players carrying minor injuries and niggles and having to play when not fully fit.
Match Info
Line-ups:
Truro City
1 Hamon, 2 Craske, 3 Riley-Lowe ©, 5 Palmer, 8 Dean, 10 Sullivan (2nd yellow 64), 11 Brett (En-Neyah 81), 12 White (Adelsbury 85), 14 Knowles, 15 Neal, 17 Greenslade (Wright 77)
Substitutes:
6 Haste (unused), 7 En-Nayah, 4 Adelsbury, 16 Wright, 19 Okoro (unused)
Plymouth Parkway
1 Semmens, 2 King (Barker 77), 3 Lane ©, 4 Hall (Goulty 85), 5 Down, 6 Booth, 7 Williams, 8 Rooney, 9 Carter (Seymour 53), 10 Garside, 11 Crago.
Substitutes
12 Billington (unused), 14 Goulty, 15 Bath (unused), 16 Barker, 9 Seymour.
Attendance: 622 (estimate 460-470 away)
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