Blue Square Bet South: Truro City 1-0 Dover Athletic in 2011

TRURO City moved up to second in the Blue Square Bet South on Saturday after beating title favourites Dover Athletic 1-0 at Treyew Road.

Marcus Martin scored the only goal of the game after the visitors had been reduced to ten men following the dismissal of left back Tom Wynter for a professional foul on Les Afful.

The victory was Truro City’s third win on the bounce and leaves them level on points with league leaders Dartford.

The win was all the more impressive as Truro had to do without their first-choice strike partnership of Barry Hayles and Andrew Watkins, who were both ruled out through injury.

Stewart Yetton and Afful started up front and there was a first start of the season for Danny Clay in midfield.

Afful was the main thorn in Dover’s side and he constantly picked the ball up from deep and ran at the visiting defence. Dover’s Shane Huke was first to be cautioned as he tripped the tricky City striker after only six minutes.

Dover hit back moments later as George Purcell showed good strength, against Steve Adams, to turn on the edge of the area and square a ball to Harry Baker, but the midfielder’s shot was a foot wide of the right hand post.

However, it was City who were the brighter of the two teams and they almost took the lead when a mix up in the Dover defence saw Yetton racing down on goal. He clashed with keeper Lee Hook who, having bravely saved at the feet of the former Argyle man, had to be taken off injured.

His replacement Ross Kitteridge remained untroubled for the remainder of the half, but the turning point in the game came on 41 minutes as Wynter was sent-off.

It was a harsh decision as the ball seemed to be running through to Kitteridge, as Afful and Wynter tussled.

However, the referee deemed that Wynter had deliberately blocked Afful’s path and stopped a goalscoring opportunity, so he was dismissed.

It was tough on Dover, but moments later they escaped a penalty appeal as Afful went over in the box.

The second half began with Billy Bricknell heading just wide for the visitors before City made their numerical advantage count.

Again, it was Afful who was the creator as he jinked his way across the edge of the Dover box.

As he reached Marcus Martin, the City midfielder took the ball off his feet to hit a first-time shot that Kitteridge could only touch onto the inside of his post.

Martin was then presented with an easier chance on 68 minutes as Afful and Yetton combined to set him up with a shot eight yards out, but he scooped a left foot effort over the crossbar.

At this point heads started to drop on the Dover side as Truro’s Afful, Martin and Yetton continued to cause problems. Afful almost got the goal his performance deserved when he shot narrowly wide with 15 minutes left.

However, it was not to matter, as Dover had little fight left in them and despite five minutes of injury time City comfortably held on for the 1-0 win.

Truro City: Tim Sandercombe, Barry McConnell, Steve Adams, Arran Pugh, Scott Walker, Andrew Taylor, Jake Ash, Danny Clay, Marcus Martin, Stewart Yetton, Les Afful.