TRURO City boss John Askey admitted Saturday’s 1-1 draw with visiting Walton & Hersham was ‘probably our worst performance’ as they required a last-gasp equaliser from Luke Jephcott to deny the visitors a shock victory in National League South.

The Londoners arrived in Cornwall bottom of the table having lost all seven league outings, but produced a fine defensive rearguard to frustrate the hosts who were looking to build on successive home victories, Saturday’s 3-1 success over Chesham United which was followed by a 4-1 win over Leicester City Under 21s in the National League Cup, the latter of which saw braces from Jephcott and Dominic Johnson-Fisher.

Askey reverted back to the same starting line-up that saw off Chesham and soon after the first whistle created a decent chance as Tyler Harvey’s flick-on found Jack Stretton who sent a shot narrowly wide.

The visitors were a threat on the break and Truro needed keeper Aidan Stone twice in quick succession as he first got to a ball in behind ahead of Paul Osew and then saving well down low to push away Marcus Sablier’s effort.

Visiting keeper Dillon Addai was a commanding presence at set-pieces while the Swans’ backline did superbly to get in the way of a series of efforts from the likes of Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, skipper Connor Riley-Lowe and Stretton.

Truro continued to lay siege after the break, but Addai and those in front of him stayed firm.

There hard work was rewarded on 81 minutes as Osew swept in a ball across the box, and their task was made easier early in injury-time when second half sub Omar Bogle retaliated and was sent-off.

It looked like the vast majority of the 1,556-strong crowd were to go home having witnessed a shock defeat, however Jephcott diverted in Ryan Law’s cross and earn the hosts a valuable point.

Reflecting afterwards, Askey told the club website: “We spoke before the game about doing the right things but yeah it was probably our worst performance.

“Obviously we had a lot of the ball but didn’t make enough of it. I thought we were slow in possession, the movement wasn’t good enough and we ended up getting done by the sucker punch. But luckily, things are happening this season which probably the opposite last season where we’ve managed to salvage a point.”

He continued: “It’s the only thing we can take out of the game. We kept knocking on the door without creating great chances, they were sort of half chances which weren’t quite falling for us and it looked like it was going to be one of those days where it was 0-0.

“We then conceded the goal towards the end which was really poor defending and shouldn’t happen, but yeah we’ve managed to somehow get the point.”

Truro are back at home tomorrow night when they welcome Salisbury (7.45pm), and Askey wants to see a much-improved display, concluding: “We’ve done well this season, every game I think we’ve performed well, and this was one of those days where everybody is expecting us to win and win comfortably, and it hasn’t happened.

“But that point might be a vital point at the end of the season, we don’t know, but obviously we’ve got to do better than we did today.”

TRURO CITY: Stone; Riley-Lowe (capt) (Johnson-Fisher, 83), W Dean, Harrison (Law, 79), Donnellan, En-Neyah (T Dean, 64), Harvey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jephcott, Stretton (Bogle, 64), Tweedy (Starkie, 64). Subs not used: Lavercombe (gk), Kinsey.