1 week Ago
Hornchurch 1 - Truro City 3 Jaze Kabia’s 16-minute second-half hat-trick ensured Truro City made it back-to-back National League South wins after a 3-1 triumph at Hornchurch. City trailed after 45 minutes in Essex with the Urchins breaking the deadlock when Tom Wraight headed home. But for a brace of fine Dan Lavercombe saves before the turnaround, City could have been further behind at the break.
However, in the second stanza, Truro and Kabia seized control to level, take the lead, and then open up a two-goal cushion. This win, ahead of two games over Easter against Torquay and Weston-super-Mare, keeps City top of the table. Visiting boss John Askey opted to keep an unchanged side for a sixth successive game, with his troops searching for a league double over the Urchins.
Back at the TCS in January, a weather-affected game saw Truro prevail 2-1 but this time around, the game was played out in glorious spring sunshine, on a bumpy and rock-hard playing surface. The away side started proceedings well and 24-goal Tyler Harvey poked Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross just wide, whilst firing straight into the midriff of home custodian Mason Terry. City were dealt a blow after 10 minutes when Yassine En-Neyah fell on the firm surface and injured his shoulder.
After trying to shake off his knock, the former Nottingham Forest midfielder was forced off and replaced by Billy Palfrey. But before Palfrey entered the fray, his side were behind. Midfielder Charlee Adams, Hornchurch’s best player on the day by some distance, delivered an inswinging corner and Wraight glanced home.
Lavercombe then came to the fore to firstly deny the home side’s leading scorer Darren McQueen, before he magnificently kept out Colombian veteran Angelo Balanta’s effort with his legs. And then, as the interval approached, a trademark Oxlade-Chamberlain throw was flicked narrowly past the post by Tinners skipper Connor Riley-Lowe as City searched for a leveller. The game itself then changed eight minutes after half-time when Kabia found the mark to restore parity with a stunning effort.
Isolated on the edge of the box, the Irishman twisted, then turned, before unleashing an unstoppable strike with his left foot, which found the top corner. Just four minutes later, though, City were grateful to Palfrey for a brilliant goal-line block. Hornchurch were curiously awarded an indirect free-kick after the ball bounced off the knee of Oxlade-Chamberlain and into the arms of Lavercombe.
The referee Josh Crofts penalised City and after Charlie Pegrum laid the ball back for Adams, the net was ripe to bulge, but Palfrey had other ideas. That incident shifted momentum City’s way and after 64 minutes, Kabia had doubled his and City’s tally when quick thinking from Will Dean caught Hornchurch napping. A quick free-kick down the line found Kabia who shot across Terry and into the bottom corner.
The afternoon for Kabia and Truro got even better less than five minutes later when Hornchurch fell asleep once more down their left-hand side. Kabia raced onto a flick and with Terry caught in no man’s land, the ball was expertly lobbed over the West Ham United loanee. Kabia had therefore bagged his second treble of the season, to take his individual tally to 16 for the campaign as Askey’s charges saw out the final throws of a stern examination with minimal fuss.
City: Lavercombe, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Dean, Law, Bell, En-Neyah (Palfrey, 25), Rooney, Riley-Lowe, Jephcott, Harvey, Kabia (Johnson-Fisher, 83). Subs not used: Sanders, Neal, Love-Holmes. Hornchurch: Terry, Phillips (Wood, 67), Scott, Gibbs, Saunders, Adams, Wraight (Muldoon, 76), Pegrum (Scannell, 71), Greenidge (Welch, 76), Balanta, McQueen (Coleman De-Graft, 71).
Referee: Josh Crofts Attendance: 675.
