BOSS John Askey said his Truro City side’s slow start against Rochdale was the root cause of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Rochdale in the National League.

The away reverse, which ended City’s run of four games unbeaten, saw the visitors fall behind inside three minutes when Tyler Smith slotted home.

That set the tone for the rest of the opening 45 as Rochdale were twice denied by the woodwork and missed a penalty too before veteran Ian Henderson doubled the lead 10 minutes before the break.

“We knew it was going to be tough at Rochdale because they are doing well and a good team,” Askey said at full-time. “But we shot ourselves in the foot in the opening minutes and if it was a hard enough task beforehand, conceding so early on made it really tough.”

Despite being very much on the back foot throughout the opening 45, City were much-improved after the turnaround.

The 61-year-old City boss added: “I wasn’t happy with the way we played in the first half and you are quite obviously never happy with going in at half-time 2-0 down.

“But I did think that with the wind being quite strong and in our favour, if we could put them under a bit of pressure early on, then nick one, you never know. It didn’t quite pan out like that and it wasn’t until the final 20 minutes that we got a bit of momentum.

“When we did start to see a bit more of the ball, we were still thinking that because they didn’t score a third, there was still a chance for us, but it wasn’t to be.

“All you can do is learn from these games and then when you play the lesser teams, hopefully we will be a bit stronger.

“I'd never question the players for their spirit, but we've got to make sure we keep going until the end of the season because we're desperate to stay in this league.”