A look at how Grecians are getting on away from St James Park
CITY FAN Exiled Grecian delivers an update on the Grecians on loan away from St James Park.Connor Riley-Lowe
Truro City, National League South (Joined in July, six-month loan extended until the end of the season)
Truro started a busy week with a three-hundred-mile midweek trip to Canvey Island to face Concord Rangers. They came away 2-1 winners, with first half goals from Matt Jay and Shane White, from the spot, enough to overcome the hosts, who pulled one back on the hour and were denied late on by a superb Martin Rice save. The result left Truro just two points from securing a play-off spot with four games remaining.
The first of which was a trip to already relegated and rock-bottom Basingstoke Town. The visitors were boosted by the return of Connor from injury and captain Arran Pugh from suspension. It showed early on, with Connor bursting down the line, but his delivery was cleared. And with eight minutes on the clock, the hosts took the lead; good work on the right allowed George Hallahan to pull back to the unmarked Simon Dunn, who rolled it into the back of the net. The rest of the game saw the White Tigers attack with direct long balls down the flanks, with the home side looking dangerous on the break. Truro even put centre-back Pugh up front in the dying minutes as they went searching for an equaliser, but it was Basingstoke who scored again, Manny Williams scrambling over the line in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Truro now have a busy final week of the season. Only fifth-placed Hemel Hempstead (two points behind with one game left) and sixth placed Whitehawk (three points behind with two games left) can overtake them. They first host Whitehawk on Tuesday 26th and, should they win, they will have guaranteed themselves a play off spot. They then travel to Havant & Waterlooville (who need to win to get out of the relegation zone) on Thursday 28th and finish the season off at home to Wealdstone on Saturday 30th.
Stats
League: 33 starts, 2 goals, 2839 minutes.
FA Cup: 3 starts, 252 minutes.
FA Trophy: 4 starts, 258 minutes.
Last game
23rd April: Basingstoke Town 2-0 Truro, played 64 mins.
Matt Jay
Truro City, National League South (Joined in January, one-month loan extended until the end of the season)
Matt scored his seventh goal of the season against Concord Rangers, following up the rebound after Matt Wright's shot was parried. It was his fifth goal for Truro and his third goal in his last four appearances. For the game against Basingstoke he was deployed on the wing and he created a good chance for Dan Green, which was bloked, just before he was replaced on sixty-eight minutes.
Stats
Truro City:
League: 17 appearances, 13 starts, 5 goals, 1098 minutes.
Hayes & Yeading United:
League: 6 starts, 2 goals, 540 minutes.
FA Trophy: 1 start, 90 minutes.
Last game
23rd April: Basingstoke Town 2-0 Truro, played 68 mins.
Alex Byrne
Weston-super-Mare, National League South (Joined in July, six-month loan extended until the end of the season)
Alex is still out injured with a sprained ankle.
Stats
League: 27 appearances, 20 starts, 1824 minutes.
FA Cup: 2 starts.
FA Trophy: 3 starts, 270 minutes.
Last game
15th March: W-s-M 1-2 Maidstone United, played 29 minutes before being taken off with a sprained ankle.
Jason Pope
Weston-super-Mare, National League South (Joined in July, six-month loan extended until the end of the season)
Weston-super-Mare secured their National League South status with a 2-0 win over play-off chasing Maidenhead on Saturday. Weston set up on the counter-attack, soaking up plenty of pressure and breaking at pace. They were denied twice in the first half, but seven minutes into the second half Tristan Plummer was brought down inside the box. Scott Wilson stepped up, stuttered and fainted before scoring his eighteenth goal of the season. The Seagulls wrapped up the points thirteen minutes from time; Plummer held the ball up well and then found Dayle Grubb on the left, who found space in the area to arrow a shot into the bottom corner, his twelfth goal of the season.
Jason was not involved in the game against Maidenhead.
Stats
League: 18 appearances,9 starts, 890 minutes
FA Trophy: 0 starts, 2 games, 46 minutes
Last game
16th April: W-s-M 1-2 Whitehawk, played 16 minutes.
James Hamon
Hayes & Yeading United, National League South (Joined in February, one-month loan extended until the end of the season)
Hayes & Yeading's painful battle to avoid relegation is all but over. Their home defeat to Bath City on Saturday leaves them three points from safety heading into the final game. They could be relegated on Thursday if Havant & Waterlooville beat Truro. In order to stay up, they need Havant to lose both of their games, St Albans to lose against play-off chasing Dartford and for there to be an eighteen-goal swing in their favour (with St Albans). Against Bath, it was a case of the same-old problems coming back to haunt them: squandering a number of decent chances before a defensive mistake proved costly. Hamon was untroubled in the first half, easily saving the only effort on target the visitors could muster.
Yet, in the first noteworthy action of the second half, a poor backpass was miscontrolled by Hamon, who then brought down the onrushing striker to give away a penalty. Liam Kelly sent him the wrong way and Hayes failed to recover. Eight minutes later, the hosts gave away another penalty. Hamon guessed the right way this time, but Kelly smashed his spot-kick into the roof of the net to make it 2-0. An awful twenty minutes for Garry Haylock's men was finished off when sloppy passing allowed Nick McCootie to go one-on-one and easily slot past a stranded Hamon. The hosts did have a good chance saved on the line, but Hamon then had to pull of a fine reaction save to keep the scoreline respectable in the final effort of the game.
Stats
League: 13 starts, 1 clean sheet, 1170 minutes
Last game
23rd April: H&Y 0-3 Bath City, played 90 minutes.
Kyle Egan
Bideford, Southern League Premier (Joined in March)
Bideford had to play their three remaining fixtures last week. They first travelled to champions Poole Town on Tuesday night. They were without six first-team players (including Jordan Storey & former Grecian Matt Bye). The Robins held their own in the first half, limiting the hosts to long range efforts while they had a couple of good chances. But Poole showed why they were champions as they came out 3-0 winners in the second half.
Bideford then travelled to Kettering on Thursday night with eleven first team players missing. The makeshift lineup (their top scorer played at centre-half) held on valiantly in the first half, which ended 0-0, but were undone in the second half and were comfortably beaten 7-0.
The Devonshire outfit finished off the season in an uneventful 0-0 draw at home to Biggleswade, a game in which the referee blew the final whistle with eight minutes remaining. Bideford finished the season 23rd on thirty-seven points, ten behind twentieth-placed Stratford Town.
Kyle started both midweek games but didn't feature at all in the final game of the season.
Stats
League: 7 starts, 630 minutes
Last game
21st April: Kettering Town 7 (seven) - 0 Bideford, started the game.
Jordan Storey
Bideford, Southern League Premier (Joined in March)
Jordan was one of the six first-team players missing for the trip to Poole. He was in the starting lineup against Kettering Town and captained the side in the final game against Biggleswade.
Stats
League: 5 appearances, 3 starts
Last game
23rd April: Bideford 0-0 Biggleswade, started the game as captain.