LONG-SUFFERING Paul Wotton admits steering homeless Truro City has been an almost ‘unmanageable’ job at times this season, but has hailed his ‘bullet-proof’ squad of players for giving fans hope for a bright new future.
Wotton’s White Tigers are acclimatising to life at a THIRD different home ground this season, this time 200 miles away from the club’s spiritual home in the deepest south west.
One of the wettest winters on record has left the nomadic Cornish club with no fewer than five games in hand on many of their league rivals and clinging onto their National League South status by a thread ahead of a hectic final leg which sees them play 15 games in the space of just six weeks.
The first of those games saw them take on Chelmsford City at Gloucester City’s Meadow Park last night with a 7.30pm kick-off, meaning players, staff and supporters (of both sides) didn’t arrive home until around 2.30am.
Truro have been forced to play their last two ‘home’ matches at Gloucester after a temporary groundshare with Taunton Town was put on hold due to the waterlogged state of Taunton’s Wordsworth Drive pitch.
Wotton has won two league titles as a player with Plymouth Argyle and has a promotion on his CV as manager of the White Tigers, but he admits keeping his side up this season amid the mayhem would go down as his proudest achievement.
“It’s a very, very difficult situation to manage at the moment, impossible at times even,” the 46-year-old told The NLP.
“I don’t think people from outside the football club realise just how difficult it has been. That’s not just for me, by the way, but for the players, the fans, the new owners, everyone associated with Truro City.
“You’re playing from one game to the next, from Plymouth Parkway to Taunton, then Gloucester, then Gloucester at 7.30 on a Saturday night. That’s a six-hour commute for some of our players. It’s unprecedented, and it’ll probably never happen again.
“It’s that horrible saying ‘you can only control the controllable’ – one that I don’t really use but in this case it’s very true.
“Has it been unmanageable at times, yes, but it’s a magnificent football club with a tremendous fan base and people stick together.
“That’s what we are going to need if we are to achieve our goal of staying up this season because that’s all we can do.
“We’re a pretty resolute bunch and we’ve just got to dig deep. There is no other choice. All we can do is keep believing in the process, stay level-headed, not get too high, not get too low, keep calm, stay humble and keep working hard.
“If that’s good enough to
