TRURO City’s penultimate away trip of their debut National League campaign ended in a 1-0 defeat at Boston United.

Former England youth international striker Jordy Hiwula netted the decisive goal 15 minutes into a damaging first-half that saw both Zac Bell and Freddie Issaka limp off.

Bell had been unlucky not to have given the Tinners an early lead with a right-footed strike that, via a deflection, was tipped over the bar by backpedaling home custodian Dan Cameron.

Harry Charsley also came close, seeing a shot bounce off Cameron and cleared off the line by Connor Teale. The midfielder was denied by a block inside the final ten minutes too, as the Pilgrims held on to all three points.

John Askey’s starting line-up showed three changes from that which held 10 man Forest Green Rovers to a 1-1 draw at The TCS on Easter Monday.

Ryan Law, Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain and Charsley came into a 4-3-3 formation, while Ben Starkie returned to the matchday squad following a hamstring injury that had kept him sidelined for some six months.

As has been so often the case this season, it was the Tinners who began the game the brightest and could well have found themselves in front with barely five minutes on the clock.

Bell’s shot from the right hand side of the penalty area took a deflection that threatened to wrong-foot Cameron, who breathed a huge sigh of relief after recovering to claw the ball over his bar.

Ben Grist was shown the game's first yellow card having felled Max Kinsey in the minutes that followed, before a clash between Bell and Marcel Lavinier left the City man needing treatment.

As is customary, he subsequently left the field and, with Truro temporarily down to ten men, Boston pressed home their advantage and opened the scoring when Hiwula shot low past Stone.

Half chances came and went for both sides, the best of which falling to the Pilgrims’ Luca Barrington, who struck narrowly over the bar from an acute angle.

The Tinners went even closer in the dying embers of the half though, when Charsley burst into the penalty area and scuffed a shot that almost caught Cameron out again. He was able to get a touch to the ball and watched as Teale was rewarded for a good piece of anticipation, clearing off the line and preventing his side’s lead being cancelled out going into the break.

The second-half went by with little consequence at the Jakemans Community Stadium, although Oisín Gallagher did blast over having had the ball put on a plate for him by Barrington.

At the other end, the Tinners – for whom half-time substitute Starkie showed signs of why he’s been so missed – carved out a number of set-piece opportunities that ultimately came to nothing.

Charsley’s deflected drive late on would be the closest they would get in front of 47 travelling Tinners in a crowd of 1,671 in Lincolnshire.

Truro host Mark Hughes’ Carlisle United on Saturday (3pm) before a last day trip to Aldershot a week later.

TRURO CITY: Stone; Bell (Riley-Lowe, 23), W Dean (capt), En-Neyah (Starkie, 46), Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jephcott, Issaka (T Dean, 23), Law, Kinsey, Stretton, Charsley. Subs not used: Howard, Harrison, Janneh, Wilson.