Watching Wycombe every week is far from a chore
Wycombe went to Rotherham last Tuesday night and set up their stall to stifle the hosts, limiting the attack-minded Millers to very few chances whilst at the same time failing to create much of their own. This prompted the usual criticisms of Wycombe being good at what they do (who’d want to be bad at what they do?), horrible to play against (again, who wants to be a side that teams like playing against?) and the sort of side that connoisseurs of the beautiful game wouldn’t want to watch each week.
Football is about variety though, and a defensive-minded away display was followed up by a far more attack-minded home win. Wycombe made is eight straight home league wins with their victory over Crewe, managing to get over the line at the very end of a relentless finale to the game. The Chairboys piled on the pressure and had multiple corners whilst at the same time Crewe threatened with a couple of late breakaways. It was breath-taking stuff that reached its climax when Ryan Tafazolli turned in Jordan Obita’s superb cross. Substitutes were on the pitch, fans were jubilant and the final whistle was greeted with jubilant scenes and a well-timed firework display. It was joyful madness as Wycombe’s adopted anthem of ‘Our House’ rang out around the tannoy and the home faithful, who have the misfortune of watching their high-flying team winning games each week, gladly joined in with the chorus.
Crewe are far from pushovers
Wycombe fans may have expected a comfortable ride against the struggling Railwaymen, but having taken points off both Rotherham and Plymouth on the road thus far, there was always the possibility of this being a tricky game for Wanderers. It proved to be the case – The Alex managed to keep Wycombe at bay for long spells at times with some superb last-ditch defending and they caused Wycombe more issues than most other visiting sides to Adams Park this season. Even the most hardened of Wycombe fans would have had a smidgen of sympathy at the death for a team who are clearly committed and working hard although David Artell will be under pressure given the league position and his frustrations were clear to see as he picked up a yellow card for remonstrating too much with the officials. Should he take a leaf out of Wycombe’s book…
Wycombe are strict disciplinarians
Wycombe may have won six home games but what is even more remarkable is that they have not picked up a single booking in five of those matches. Their tally of 13 yellow cards is the fewest in the entire division. Anis Mehmeti may have picked up a three game ban for an incident against Sunderland that was initially missed by the referee, but the only shown red card was later rescinded on appeal. It’s another impressive stat for a side that is doing very little wrong at the moment.
Strength in squad depth might come in handy
Garath McCleary was stretchered off after 73 minutes with what, according to his social media post, looks to be a nasty shoulder injury. The 34-year-old has been a key player for Wycombe this season and he now looks set to miss the trip to Fleetwood next week and the visit of Ipswich Town on 2nd November. Ainsworth will need the likes of Brandon Hanlon and Sullay Kaikai to replicate the threat McCleary usually poses.
Gormania lives on
Wycombe fans were delighted to see former manager John Gorman return to Adams Park. The Scot is one of the nicest men in football and remains popular at Wycombe after his brand of ‘Gormania’ football from the mid-noughties – a relentless approach of attack-minded football in which a 2-0 deficit was nothing to worry about and a 3-0 lead was far from comfortable. Off-field tragedies at the start of 2006 stopped him achieving promotion and ultimately lead to him departing Wycombe in May of that year.
John Gorman looking well as Wycombe put on a late show
He retired from football in 2012 due to health reasons but it was wonderful to see him back at Wycombe once more and looking so well. He certainly approved of the stunning finale.
Wycombe Wanderers 2 (Tafazolli 45, 90+7) Crewe Alexandra 1 (Lowery 77)
Att: 4813 (Away 213)
words Phil Slatter, D3D4 Chairboys writer