Wycombe need to sharpen up

They may have gone top of the league a fortnight ago, but since then Wycombe have slipped up. They twice took the lead away at struggling Morecambe but came away empty-handed before putting in what was possibly their most lethargic home performance of the season against MK. The first touches were often heavy at crucial moments (and if they weren’t, the second touch often let them down) and sloppy passing have become a little too commonplace. The winning goal from the visitors started with a misplaced pass and culminated in Scott Twine firing home as the Wycombe defence seemed to freeze. Some tightening up of the basics would not go amiss.

And they’re missing Josh Scowen

Central midfielder Scowen is the unsung hero of the Wycombe team – he doesn’t score or create many goals but he has become something of a lynchpin in the middle, rarely squandering possession and often being responsible for retrieving the ball from the opposition. His injury in the game against Oxford has been costly, and that is despite Wycombe not being shy in the central midfield position. In addition, the loss of Sam Vokes to COVID has had an effect as without a central point of attack, Wycombe were toothless in the first half. His introduction after the break gave Wanderers some much-needed shape, even if it wasn’t enough to salvage any points.

Milton Keynes continue to just do enough

MK overtook Wycombe with victory in South Bucks and are closing in on the top two. 2022 commenced for Milton Keynes with draws against struggling Gillingham and Accrington but, with the exception of their shock defeat to Doncaster last week, they seem to be grinding out regular results. A 1-0 win against ten-man AFC Wimbledon and a 95th-minute victory against Burton Albion in midweek has kept their points tally ticking over. They aren’t scoring a lot of goals but then they don’t need to – defensively, they are very solid. The victory against Wycombe was built on a very efficient defensive display. Wanderers, for all their attacking talent and knack of scoring late on, found it very hard to get in behind the visitors who were extremely well marshalled at the back. Jamie Cumming is an excellent goalkeeper but even he had little to do of note on Saturday with the men in front of him doing their job and doing it well. Three goals conceded in the past seven matches tells you what a solid foundation they have at the moment.

There wasn’t much Bucks Fizz in a fairly uneventful game on the pitch. Photo: Nick Slevin

The race for the top two is wide open

On 22nd January at around 4:15 pm it looked like the top four would break away from the chasing pack. With MK losing and Wycombe 2-1 up, a big gap looked set to open up. Yet Morecambe’s comeback and Mk’s back to back wins have completely stopped that from happening. With Oxford recovering well from their defeat at Adams Park and Sunderland stuttering, the top five are all now bunched up somewhat. Leaders Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic have games in hand on everyone, but we’ve seen how quickly gaps can open and close and with the potential for anyone to beat anyone in this division, it’s set up to be a very exciting race to the finish.

A dark cloud loomed over the game and remains a problem for football

For the first time in thirty years of watching Wycombe Wanderers, I walked away from Adams Park with a nasty taste in my mouth. The first half of the match was marred by some vile chanting from the away end relating to sexual abuse and aimed at Adebayo Akinfenwa. It was not a song sung by a handful of people but could be widely heard and Akinfenwa reported it to a steward. Tannoy announcements and a Twitter message from Milton Keynes went out urging for the chant to cease and the referee briefly paused the game, as MK players pleaded with their own supporters not to sing it. It died down but it didn’t stop, and could even be heard nearly half a mile away from the ground thirty minutes after the final whistle.

Vile chants – How about you just don’t do it? It’s not hard, is it?

Football fans often sing songs about how great their team and players are and equally chant derogatory things about the opposition. There is nothing wrong with that. Akinfenwa himself often receives stick relating to his size and he takes it in good part, yet there is a line and the MK fans who sang this disgraceful chant on Saturday sprinted past that line. Sexual abuse is not something to trivialize or make light of and using something as despicable as sexual abuse to try and score bragging points at a football match is beyond the pale. There are often children at football matches and their parents should not be having to explain to them what this chant means. The children of players also often attend matches and for them to hear these vile things about their father is not on. And the people we need to think about in relation to sexual abuse is the victims – it is perfectly conceivable that there are fans, officials, players and staff at football matches who have been the victims of such vile crimes and for them to see football fans chanting and making a joke about it is not something they should have to put up with. We must not forget that football itself has recently had to deal with historical sexual abuse cases.

He was subject to vile abuse, but Akinfenwa’s charisma shines through.

And I am absolutely sick to my back teeth of the tribalism, whataboutery and excuses that unfold after incidents such as these. A look on Twitter after the game saw comments such as ‘It’s just banter’, ‘This is football’, ‘Fans all over the place sing that’ and ‘I heard your fans sing this or that the other week’. Football needs to unite against racism, sexism, homophobia and the sort of abuse we saw on Saturday. I don’t expect clubs, players, officials or sensible fans to apologise. This is about individuals, regardless of whom they support. Why can’t we all agree on what is wrong regardless of our club loyalties? We mustn’t defend others just because we support the same team. We mustn’t point the finger at individual fans of other clubs who are not taking part in such abuse, just because others who support the same side as them have done so. We must never use lines like ‘I’m not defending it but…’ and deflect attention from one vile form of abuse by trying to highlight another.

And if you cannot understand why trivialising something as despicable as sexual abuse, falsely accusing someone of something as despicable as sexual abuse and excusing both of these as ‘banter’ then you need to take a long, hard look at yourself and change your behaviour moving forward – for you are part of the problem.

Wycombe Wanderers 0 Milton Keynes 1 (Twine 13)

ATT: 7,345 (Away 1,466)

words Phil Slatter, D3D4 Football Chairboys writer