FALMOUTH Town manager Andrew Westgarth admitted he felt quite pleased at full-time despite watching his side lose 5-2 at home to Truro City.

Town fell two goals down to the side ranked three divisions above them as Alex Battle and Tyler Harvey, but Tim Nixon pulled one back late in the first half before jack Bowyer levelled the scores early in the second half.

But substitute Rocky Neal restored City’s lead almost instantly before extending the advantage from the spot, with fellow sub Dan Rooney wrapping up the win as Truro retained the Aubrey Wilkes Trophy.

Town spent much of the first half in their own third of the pitch as Truro lay siege on the Town goal right from the off, but barring a couple of lucky escapes and individual errors for the two goals, Town’s defence largely dealt with what their higher-ranked opponents had to offer.

REPORT: White Tigers eventually overcome Town to retain Aubrey Wilkes Trophy

“There’s not going to be too many times that I'll come off a pitch after losing and be quite pleased,” Westgarth said. “I thought in large spells of the game we equipped ourselves really well and obviously as the game goes on it got away from us, but I thought first half they didn’t have a lot of chances.”

“We got a bit lucky off a couple of corners and their first strike was a great strike, don’t get me wrong, but poor from our point of view in the build-up.

“Even the second one, the build-up was poor from us, and when you leave someone like Tyler [Harvey] at the back post with a header like that.

“Great from us to get the goal at half-time just to give us that little bit of a lift, but I said to the lads at half-time I thought we defended really well as a unit. We had to show the other side of our game tonight.

“We weren’t amazing going forward so I’m sure Paul [Wotton, Truro manager] didn’t have many concerns with us at half-time, but defensively as a unit we looked really resolute, other than those two mistakes.”

IN PICTURES: Truro City beat Falmouth Town to lift Aubrey Wilkes Trophy

Town had just two shots on target in the first half with both coming in the final five minutes, with the second of those seeing Nixon halve the deficit against the run of play a couple of minutes before the break.

Bowyer then levelled the scores early in the second half with a well-taken finish, only to see his side fall behind barely a minute later as Neal fired past Ryan Barnes almost from the kick-off after chances from team-mates Stewart Yetton and Ryan Dickson were blocked.

Westgarth praised the efforts of his striker, who scored in the Aubrey Wilkes Trophy match for the third year running but bemoaned the speed at which his side fell behind again after doing well to get themselves back on level terms.

AS IT HAPPENED: Falmouth Town 2-5 Truro City

“In the second half I thought we showed great character to get back into the game, and Bowyer, what does he do? He scores goals, it was a great finish,” he said.

“[Truro’s third goal was] really sloppy from us, literally it must have been a minute later. The really disappointing thing was to concede with three bites of the cherry.

“Then the penalty [for 2-4], disappointing to concede that and then like I said the game got away from us then, but overall, a lot to be encouraged by.”