A year that began with Coventry City winning comfortably at Adams Park ended with Coventry City winning comfortably at Adams Park as an impressive display from Mark Robins side saw them defeat league leader Wycombe Wanderers by 4 goals to 1.

With the Sky Blues winless away from their makeshift home this season and the Chairboys unbeaten in their own backyard, perhaps there was an air of ironic inevitability to the result. On top of that is City’s remarkable record over Wanderers – in nine previous meetings, they had won eight with Wycombe’s solitary victory coming in the Second Leg of a League Cup tie in 1993, a tie which City won on aggregate. Even when Wycombe did beat Coventry, they still lost.

Unchanged from their win over Lincoln City, Coventry started the game looking sharp with Wycombe being somewhat laborious in possession, and with just three minutes gone, Sam McCullen cut in from the right and curled a beautiful opener into the corner of the net with Ryan Allsop given no chance. Coventry continued to press, and Allsop was forced into a save from Liam Kelly nine minutes later but Wycombe hit back with their first moment of any note. Sido Jombati’s flick-on put both Scott Kashket and Adebayo Akinfenwa free of the somewhat static opposing defence, and it was Akinfenwa who took the initiative to roll the ball past Marko Marosi. It was typical of Wycombe – having had little of the ball, they had punished their opponents with the first sniff, but if that was an example of ruthless efficiency, what happened next was Exhibit A of ‘How to push the self-destruct button’. From the re-start, Michael Rose found Matt Godden whose effort was saved by Allsop. The ball fell to Jombati but he dallied when he should have cleared and McCallum, sensing an opportunity, stole in. Jombati brought him down and referee Kevin Johnson had little option but to point to the spot. Godden stepped up and found the net, despite Allsop going the right way. Parity has lasted less than a minute, at a point where Wycombe really needed to slow the frenetic pace of the game down somewhat.

City were playing some neat football, but Wycombe did have their moments, often from set-pieces by way of Mr Johnson showing that some referees do occasionally punish defenders who are keen to get a piece of Akinfenwa’s shirt. Johnson’s goodwill though didn’t stretch far enough to give Wycombe a penalty after 33 minutes when Kashket went to ground in the area. The home fans were enraged, the away fans incensed by what they felt was a blatant dive. In truth, there may well have been contact but it was minimal at best and the diminutive striker needs to show more strength in such positions.

It was Coventry who struck again, right on the stroke of half-time as the effective Godden raced clear of the Wycombe defence, rounded Allsop and found the corner. There was still time for Kashket to sting the palms of Marosi following a good cross from Joe Jacobson but Wycombe were left with a mountain to climb.

That mountain became even higher earlier in the second half when Godden fired home from distance following a slick passing move that even drew applause from the home faithful, who were staring down the barrel of a first home defeat since April.

That goal completely killed off the game as a contest as City opted to declare with four with the job as good as done. Wycombe huffed and puffed – Anthony Stewart shot wide and Akinfenwa looped a header over the bar – but even with more creative players like Paul Smyth and Nick Freeman thrown on, they were unable to stop their heaviest home defeat for 20 months.

It was an impressive display from Coventry who move into the play-off zone and sit just two points behind Oxford United in second. They will travel to struggling Tranmere on New Year’s day positively bursting with confidence.

As for Wycombe, they have gone from losing once in 20 games to losing three in a row, from conceding no goals in six games to shipping seven in the aforementioned losing run.

The wheels have come off, Wycombe have been found out and the slide down the table will commence in due course. At least, that’s what the nay-sayers and cynics will say.

The truth is that Wycombe have been over-achieving somewhat and the law of averages dictates that defeats were always a likelihood. Their effective style of play had been making life difficult for their opponents, yet the Christmas fixtures have seen them come up against in-form teams who have the ability to create openings in a way that Wycombe do not. That perhaps would not have been a problem but the lack of quality in depth at Adams Park has become apparent in the last eight days. With Darius Charles unable to play more than once a week, Dominic Gape going off injured early against Oxford, Jack Grimmer in the treatment room, Fred Onyedinma a long-term absentee and Akinfenwa’s daft sending off at the Kassam Stadium meaning he has only been available for half of the past three games, Wycombe were always going to struggle against quality sides such as Oxford, Portsmouth and Coventry. Had all those players been fit and available, Wanderers may have managed to get the sort of results they have built the season on thus far. Equally, without those players, they may have managed against lesser opposition.

A quick scout of the table reveals that they have picked up 32 points against the bottom twelve and only 11 against the other sides in the league. To that end, the fixture list may well play to Wycombe’s favour in the final three months of the year.

They start 2020 with a visit from out of sorts Ipswich Town…

WYCOMBE WANDERERS 1 (Akinfenwa 14)

COVENTRY CITY 4 (McCallum 3, Godden 16pen, 44, 50)

ATT: 7,533 (Away 1,800)

words Phil Slatter, D3D4 Wycombe correspondent