AFTER six years of unprecedented success Truro City Football Club are heading into their first relegation battle for a while.

And after a disappointing loss to Eastbourne Borough on Saturday many are predicting that the White Tigers are in big trouble. Eastbourne manager Tommy Widdrington was not of that school of thought though and apparently told Truro City boss Lee Hodges that the White Tigers “were too good to go down” after Saturday’s game.

So is he right? Well you can see the oxymoronic qualities of Widdrington’s statement when you consider that his own team, Eastbourne Borough, were in the relegation zone themselves before Saturday’s match having not won in the league since early December.

Lee Hodges also added that his players looked “dead on their feet” and that having asked them to keep producing “minor miracles” week in, week out, it had finally “caught up” with them.

However, it is Hodges I feel most sorry for. Having stepped into the Truro hot seat just under two years ago, he worked miracles to get the current group of players into the Conference South, but his task in keeping them there has been hampered by off-the-field problems.

The financial situation at Truro, towards the end of last year, saw the players go months without being paid. That led to the subsequent departures of Danny Clay, Andrew Taylor and Dan Smith - all of whom the manager would have loved to have called upon during the recent downturn in form.

He squad is currently thin and tattered. A transfer embargo has prevented the boss from adding to the squad when injuries have hit. You may remember that Hodges missed out on the signing of Sam Malsom in September. The former Plymouth Argyle striker was all set to join the club until the league vetoed the move.

Since then Malsom has gone onto get 15 goals in 29 appearances for Weymouth in the Southern Premier, form that has earned a move to Truro City’s league rivals Dorchester, where he has scored three in three. You have to think Truro City would be safe now, had they managed to bring Malsom in.

However, despite all the doom and gloom around Treyew Road at the minute, I happen to agree with Widdrington - City are too good to go down.

They have talented players such as Barry Hayles, Stewart Yetton and Marcus Martin all making recent returns from injury lay-offs.

And if you disregard the Eastbourne match as one-off performance - which compared to recent displays against Dover Athletic and Salisbury City it was - then you would back Truro to get the nine points Lee Hodges has calculated that his side needs, from March, to avoid the drop.

This is because over the next three weeks Truro face six games, five of which are against sides from the bottom half of the table.

Even with only one win in 2012, you would back City to get at least a point this Saturday away at second from bottom Hampton and Richmond - a club that has been in and around the relegation zone all season. And if Lee Hodges men were to follow that up with a victory against Boreham Wood on Tuesday night - a side only three places ahead of them in the table - then things would be looking a lot brighter.

It would be four of the nine ‘March points’ collected ahead of games against bottom of the table Thurrock and third from bottom Staines. When you look at City’s run in towards the end of the season it’s not going to take more minor miracles for them to survive.

What do you think? Will Truro stay up this season, e-mail your thoughts to the captain at editorial@packetseries.co.uk