Despite looking comfortable and matching their opponents during the first twenty five minutes, a penalty and a goal three minutes later set up a platform that National League side Truro exploited to the full as they comfortably swept to a 6-1 victory over Frome.
This was Frome’s sixth away tie in knockout competitions this year, and the squad was still missing Mitchell Page due to injury and new signing Ollie Knight was unavailable due to being “cup tied”.
From the start, Frome matched the hosts in all areas, and they went closest to scoring as a stray pass allowed Darren Jefferies to latch onto the ball, and from his cross, Jon Davies hit a shot that just clipped the cross-bar as it went over.
The breakthrough for Truro came on 25 minutes as Sam Teale elected to bring the ball down rather than clearing first time, and as he was robbed by Durrell Berry, a despairing tackle from Nathan Summers took the full back down in the box and Niall Thompson fired home from the spot.
Truro doubled their lead three minutes later as Aaron Bentley just managed to beat the offside trap and slotted the ball beyond the reach of Kyle Phillips to give Frome a mountain to climb.
Mike Bryant replaced Dan Cleverley in the 32nd minute as the midfielder was forced off with a knee injury that may keep him out for a few games, and as the match headed towards half time, River Allen cut inside before firing over for Truro and home keeper Martin Rice had to be very alert to stop a shot from Sam Teale that might have offered Frome a way back into this match.
A second penalty in the 49th minute was gain awarded against Nathan Summers, and this time Truro’s Andrew Neal stroked the ball home with no problems to make it 3-0 and the game was effectively done and dusted two minutes later as Thompson and Neal linked up to create an opportunity for Allen who fired it into the roof of the net to make the scoreline 4-0 to the hosts.
Allen then grabbed his second in the 57th when Kyle Phillips came out of his goal to clear, only to completely miss his kick, presenting the striker with an easy shot into the empty net, but then Frome did pull one back as Mike Bryant stabbed home a close range shot following a goalmouth scramble to make the scoreline 5-1 to Truro.
Any hopes of a late, miraculous comeback were completely killed off in the 81st minute as an acrobatic effort from centre back Aaron Bentley flew into the net to make the final score 6-1 to the hosts, and though they fully deserved their win, the final score-line was not really a true representation of the overall balance of the game.
With Frome now out of all knock out competitions, attention turns full to the Southern Premier League, specifically the visit of Cirencester on Wednesday as Frome will look to do the double over them following their excellent 3-1 victory their at the start of the season.
