TRURO City dropped to the foot of the Enterprise National League standings after a narrow home reverse at the hands of fellow strugglers Gateshead on Saturday night.

With the game not starting until 5.30pm due to live DAZN television coverage, the Tinners kicked off 11 points from safety due to Morecambe and Sutton defeating Eastleigh and Wealdstone respectively.

As expected, the home side was much changed from that which lost in the last four of the National League Cup at Boreham Wood on Tuesday. Ryan Law, Harry Kite, Will Dean and Zac Bell were the only starters who remained, whilst Tyler Harvey and Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain were restored to the starting line-up.

Plymouth Argyle loan duo Freddie Issaka and Caleb Roberts were both on the bench for the Tinners, with the Home Park pair watched on from the stands by Pilgrims’ director of football Derek Adams, who earlier on in the day had seen his side thrash Cardiff City 5-2.

In swirling winds and falling rain, the opening 10 minutes were cagey – as expected with so much at stake.

But slowly but surely, City settled and Shaun Donnellan found space on the edge of the box, but his goalbound effort was deflected wide for a corner.

Truro were getting real joy down their right and Bell fizzed a ball into the fabled corridor of uncertainty, which didn't find a player in a red and black shirt.

Up to this point, Pete Jameson had not been tested, but he was called into serious action after 15 minutes as Harry Charsley looked certain to find the bottom corner with a low effort, but the ball was kept out.

And then came the first Gateshead counter as a Truro corner was cleared and Billy Chadwick was clear with Law forcing him wide and away from goal. However, no City player was tracking the run of Harry Chapman, who poked past Stone and the ball trickled across the line.

Despite the goal, the pattern of City dominance continued, and their persistence paid off when a combination of Kite, Bell and Oxlade-Chamberlain linked-up down the right for Harvey to force home the latter’s back post cross ahead of Gateshead captain Kenton Richardson.

Parity was possibly the least City deserved and another fine Jameson save, almost a carbon copy of his first stop of the evening, denied Charsley as half-time loomed.

Gateshead would have been the happier of the two teams to see and hear referee Greg Rollason blow his half-time whistle, but after the break they came out swinging.

Another cagey opening to the second period, just like the first, transpired until Chapman picked up the ball wide on the left and drove inside, before unleashing a fine effort past Stone from outside the box.

City introduced Dom Johnson-Fisher to try and spark a comeback, but bar a Zac Bell shot which went over the bar, the hosts offered very little going forward.

And at the other end, Gateshead, with more composure on the counter, could have put gloss on the scoreline and performance in the final five minutes, with City throwing bodies forward in search of a leveller that never came.

TRURO CITY: Stone; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Donnellan, Law; Bell, Kite, Charsley, Dean (Jephcott, 80), Riley-Lowe (Issaka, 71); Pyke (Johnson-Fisher, 59), Harvey. Subs not used: Lavercombe, Hasani, Harrison, Roberts.