By Gareth Davies at Cherrywood Road

NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH (TUESDAY)

Farnborough 1 Truro City 1

NINE-MAN Truro City claimed a heroic away point at league leaders Farnborough as John Askey’s side made it four games without defeat.

Tyler Harvey scored his ninth of the season in the 12th minute to give City a deserved lead early on at Cherrywood Road.

The home side then huffed and puffed in search of a leveller with Truro looking more than capable of adding a second on the break.

Farnborough were given a helping hand by referee Adam Merchant with 24 minutes of normal time left when he gave Billy Palfrey and Connor Riley-Lowe their marching orders.

Both players were cautioned in the first 45 minutes with Palfrey shown a second yellow for the faintest of touches on substitute Joe Haigh. The decision looked incredibly soft and then Riley-Lowe was also shown a second yellow card too.

Confusion reigned supreme as none of the 1,164 fans inside the ground and certainly not this correspondent, could fathom why Riley-Lowe joined Palfrey for an early bath.

There was certainly no dissent evident from the City skipper, nor did he appear aggressive in questioning the whistle blower’s dismissal of Palfrey. But the decision had been made and City now had to defend for their lives.

They did, and some, until the 83rd minute when Taylor Clark’s shot from distance, almost born out of frustration at his side’s inability to break down nine men, took a wicked deflection and found the top corner to share the spoils.

Before the goals and red cards, the visitors raced out of the traps and had the first sight of goal after just six minutes. Riley-Lowe found Jaze Kabia in the box, with the Irishman’s low effort with the outside of his boot going just wide.

Shortly after Kabia’s sighter, City took the lead through another Harvey party piece.

Yassine En-Neyah was fouled outside the box and Harvey took the subsequent free-kick, getting the ball up and over the wall, past the outstretched hand of home custodian Jack Turner.

The rest of the first half saw Farnborough have plenty of the ball, but they failed to test Dan Lavercombe as Clark (twice) and Olly Pendelbury were off target from range.

The hosts were also forced into a change seven minutes before the break when the lively Ricky Holmes was replaced, after he came off second best when battling with En-Neyah.

Pendelbury should have hit the target in the 51st minute and at the other end, Palfrey could only find the arms of Turner when well placed.

The game then hinged on Haigh’s break and subsequent tumble with 24 minutes left and Mr Merchant reaching for his top pocket not once, but twice.

It would be backs to the wall for City and Harvey was sacrificed with 20 minutes left for Dan Rooney as Truro tried to cling on.

Miller Matthews-Lewis, the Yellows’ leading scorer, had the ball in the net shortly after Harvey’s withdrawal, but his effort was correctly ruled out for offside.

Farnborough then threw the kitchen sink at Truro, but City stood firm and with Lavercombe smothering Haigh’s low effort, Clark’s fortunate equaliser arrived with eight minutes left.

In stoppage time, which was signalled as eight minutes but totalled almost 12, Lavercombe then denied Pendelbury and Clark as City bravely clung on to earn a warranted share of the spoils, given their heroic rearguard action for close to 36 minutes.

TRURO CITY: Lavercombe, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Harrison, Sanders, Riley-Lowe(capt), En-Neyah (Love-Holmes, 87), Dean, Palfrey, Law, Kabia (Johnson-Fisher, 58), Harvey (Rooney, 70). Subs not used: Neal, Kuleya.