KEATON Ward stepped off the bench to score a superb winner nine minutes from time as Truro City slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat at home to Altrincham.

Sam Sanders returned to the City starting XI, doing so for the first time in over a month, as Shaun Donnellan sat out due to the red card suffered at Solihull Moors in midweek.

Tyler Harvey, meanwhile, took up a place on the bench following an injury lay-off of his own.

After a poignant Remembrance tribute, City had the better of the opening exchanges, with the tone set through an early free-kick from Will Dean that was headed clear before Rekeil Pyke met a cross with a powerful header that forced visiting custodian Luke Hutchinson into an acrobatic stop.

At the same end, Dom Johnson-Fisher brushing off his man and retrieving what had looked like a lost cause. City played the ball neatly around the edge of the 18-yard-box before Johnson-Fisher himself got a shot away that Hutchinson easily gathered.

It took until after the 30-minute mark for Dan Lavercombe to be seriously tested, as Altrincham built up a head of steam.

They momentarily thought they had edged their noses in front when James Gale had the ball in the back of the net, only for referee Emily Heaslip to end their celebrations following a foul on Lavercombe.

A staunch rearguard action from those in red and black ensued for the remainder of the half, with Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ryan Law and Dan Rooney each putting in well-timed tackles to stem the flow of the Robins forward momentum.

No sooner had Heaslip blown her whistle to signal the start of the second half had City found themselves on the back foot again as a miscued clearance from Lavercombe required a goal-line clearance to save his blushes.

Lavercombe was called into action once again – shortly before the hour mark – as Kahrel Redden gathered a through ball and bore down on goal. The ‘keeper stood up tall and got his body behind the effort.

On came firepower in the shape of Luke Jephcott and Saikou Janneh as City looked to turn the tide, but a promising attack came to nothing.

Law again provided impetus at the back when timing a slide tackle perfectly deep within his own box, before Tylor Golden arrowed a header back across Lavercombe and past his far post.

Rooney soon joined Oxlade-Chamberlain in the book after sticking out a leg to prevent the Robins winging their way any further forward.

The largest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for one Tyler Harvey who was immediately back into the thick of things and needed to be, as Ward curled home his 81st minute effort from 20 yards.

In the dying embers, Harvey was presented with two opportunities that brought the crowd to their feet, the first an overhead-kick that skipped narrowly wide of the mark and the second a well-struck effort from the edge of the area which ricocheted off Janneh and into the hoardings.

Truro head to Essex on Saturday to face Braintree Town (3pm).

TRURO CITY: Lavercombe, Bell, Riley-Lowe (capt), Dean, Sanders, Rooney, Johnson-Fisher (Jephcott, 57), Oxlade-Chamberlain, Hasani (Harvey, 79), Pyke (Janneh, 68), Law. Subs not used: Stone (gk), Love-Holmes, Kinsey, Kite.