One club’s epic match schedule: 11 games, 24 days, no time to train

English club Truro City are preparing for 11 grueling matches in 24 days amid a delay that would enrage even the most placid Premier League manager.

The Cornish side's season was ruined by wet weather and pitch complications, leaving them with just under a quarter of their 46 National League South games to play in less than a month.

During the same period, Manchester City have played just seven matches as they aim to repeat last season's treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Imagine how Pep Guardiola would react if his team had to play a match every 2.18 days.

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Ahead of Friday's match against Slough Town, Truro have 42 points and sit 19th in England's sixth semi-professional tier having played 35 matches, four fewer than their opponents and up to six fewer than some teams of the division. They are two points above relegation, but could technically qualify for the promotion playoffs if they go on a winning streak between now and April 20. In reality, however, given the problems that plagued their campaign, survival would be considered a great achievement.

Their task has been made even more difficult by the fact that their remaining nine home games will be played 196 miles from Truro. Homeless after leaving Treyew Road while waiting for a new ground to be built, Truro began the 2023-24 season at Bolitho Park in Plymouth Parkway, 53 miles north of the city in the far southwest of the Kingdom –United.

The English winter – the wettest in 130 years, according to the Met Office – ultimately made it impossible for two teams to play at Bolitho, forcing the White Tigers to relocate to Wordsworth Drive, Taunton Town, 125 miles from the capital of England. Cornwall. They ultimately didn't play a single match there. The Taunton ground has also suffered from the weather conditions and Truro's relegation rivals Town are also facing congestion problems.

And so to Gloucester's Meadow Park, where they have played their last three home matches on artificial pitches, including Tuesday's goalless draw against Dartford, which manager Adrian Pennock stressed was a long way for his side. team and its supporters to travel in pouring rain. weekday evening. The irony probably escaped him: Dartford, 143 miles from Gloucester, had a shorter journey than Truro.

“We lost a huge advantage that we had at this level, which is when teams have to move towards us,” Truro assistant manager Stewart Yetton told ESPN. “We're really grateful to Gloucester, who stepped up and didn't take advantage of our situation, but we're basically playing away – the pitch is a lot closer for some of our opponents.” That could change in the coming weeks as Truro becomes more familiar with its temporary home.

Truro's series of games means they will play Friday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Only two of those games are away, while they also have to find a date to play Eastbourne Borough at home after the original match was suspended last week due to an injury to an Eastbourne player . In the meantime, training sessions have been canceled.

The biggest problem may now be fielding a team for every match as players struggle to juggle family and work commitments with the travel involved over the next 24 days. Yetton jokes it might even depend on him and the manager – former Plymouth Argyle and Southampton midfielder Paul Wotton – dropping their boots and playing up front.

“We have one of, if not the smallest, budgets in the league, so we preferred to work with a team of around 17 people to maintain the quality,” added Yetton, who is the all-time leading scorer of the club with more than 200 goals. . “It's about 18 or 19 for this run-in, but [Wotton] is on the phone with players almost all day right now [as there is no transfer window at this level]although it's a hard sell: “So we're Truro, but we used to play Plymouth, now we're Gloucester…”

“We have guys who just won't be able to do certain games because it means leaving work at 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. We're also going to have to think about the well-being of the players. Playing so often and with all the travel. This is a serious problem. Consideration.”

Yetton estimates around 150 people attended Tuesday's game – compared to up to 1,000 people at Treyew Road – and many of them were neutrals, away fans and Truro supporters who live in and around Gloucester, although a minibus leaves from the match. Rising Sun Pub in the city for a seven hour round trip.

Truro will return to Cornwall next season as part of a phased plan to build a new stadium, but no one on the playing side wants to look that far ahead as the southernmost club in Europe's top six leagues England are preparing for the grueling series of games in their immediate future.

“We were given lemons but we’re going to turn them into lemonade,” Yetton said. “In the locker room, I bring out all the clichés about making a positive out of a bad situation.

“We approach it game by game, but we want to get to 50 points [from their current total of 42] and see what the country is like. We can’t wait to be back in Truro next season, but we want it to be with National South football.”