Claims that today’s Truro City match at Gateshead sets up a new record as the longest away trip in English football are being disputed by a former skipper of the club’s one-time deadly local rivals Falmouth Town.
ANDY STREET led Town to a domestic trophy “treble” in 1996-97 and won over 100 caps for Cornwall.
On January 20, 2001, his Town side lost 4-1 at Bedlington in the FA Vase, which, he records in his memoir STREETS AHEAD, involved a round trip of 956 miles – 42 more than Truro-Gateshead. See this extract from Andy’s book (published wholly in aid of Cancer Research UK):
. . . . there was the little matter of notching up yet another new record. On January 20 we played away to Bedlington Terriers in the FA Vase, which became the longest trip ever made in any FA competition.
The distance was 478 miles, or a round trip of 956 – and the build-up was immense, the more so with the match in some doubt right up to an hour or so before kick-off because of the weather. Our mission even made it into the national press, being featured in Super Goals On Saturday, a weekly supplement published free with The Sun. Here’s how reporter Vikki Orvice described it:--
FALMOUTH JOIN MILE-SIGH CLUB Falmouth Town are praying their FA Vase clash at Bedlington Terriers goes ahead today – after embarking on the longest-ever journey for a domestic fixture. The Cornish outfit set off at 8.30am yesterday to make it to Northumberland ahead of their fourth round encounter, which kicks off at 3 pm this afternoon. It means travelling for TEN hours through FIFTEEN counties, racking jup nearly 500 miles on the way. And they will have to do it all over again when they return home tomorrow.
Not surprisingly, the prospect of the weather intervening is far from appealing. Falmouth secretary John Thompsonadmitted: “When we saw the draw and where Bedlington was, we thought “My God.”Their third rokund replay with Nantwich went to a replay and we were praying that Bedlington lost. We’re looking anxiously at the weather now and just hope the game goes ahead. We’ll play on glass.
Thompson has spent the last two weeks arranging the trip, which will cost £3,000, although the FA have agreed to cover any losses. He added: “We considered flying, but we woulds have had to get to Bristol first, which would have meant leaving atr 3am. So we decided to leave on Friday by coach. We planned to stay in Newcastle on Friday and Saturday and then return, hopefully, with a win.”
Falmouth are Jewson South Western League champions and their longest trip in the division is a 70-mile jaunt to Tavistock. They will take 53 people to today’s game and have travelled in the double-decker tour bus usually used by singer Elkie Brooks. Thompson said: “Our striker Luke Hodge’s dad Al is a session musician with Elkie Brooks, so he arranged it. It normally carries six or seven beds which have been taken out – although we might have been able to use them!
The team . . . will be underdogs against a Bedlington outfit who reached the FA Vase final two years ago. But Falmouth manager David Bull (sic) insisted: “They won’t want a replay!”
They didn’t need one; they beat us 4-1 on an absolute bog of a pitch. In normal circumstances, the match would never have been played, but the ref said he was prepared to let it go ahead as we had travelled so far. Arguably, Bedlington were much the better side, but the manner of our defeat was actually very frustrating as we came so close to reaching the next round. Sid Taylor, I’m convinced, had his best game ever for us and kept us in the running with so many great saves. Then, with just ten minutes or so left, Luke Hodge was brought down as he was about to shoot from just six yards and he converted his penalty – while the culprit escaped with just a yellow card. On another occasion they might even have been reduced to nine men, as one of their players actually threw mud at the ref but was allowed to stay on the pitch! Then Bedlington equalized in the 87th minute – through that mud-thrower - and went on to sow the game up in extra time.
And so, the old saw about a long, long way home for the losers took on even greater resonance – although Luke at least managed to bag the one remaining bed on the coach for a good day’s sleep all the way back home the next day! Our tale of Bedlington woe also included the loss of defender Ian Stephens, who saved a certain goal with his hand, the absence altogether of my brother Sage through suspension and my substitution with my poor legs being deemed too old to cope with the extra time.
STREETS AHEAD is published wholly in aid of Cancer Research UK and priced at £5, with higher donations strongly encouraged. It is available by contacting Andy direct: a.street831@btinternet.com
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