My impressions after 5 years away.

It was great to have the chance to meet up with Rocky and 1887 at Adams Park. Pity I didn’t get to meet any more. I had intended to come to the Stevenage game but I have to go to Crufts to watch the afghan hounds and they are on Saturday this year.

It’s over 5 years since I last came to watch Wycombe, that being against Aston Villa and, despite losing 8-3 I honestly thought Wycombe were the better side and the score was a joke, not reflecting the game at all. The problem started when Wycombe lost 2 key players (one was Nathan Tyson) then they had a soft penalty and we were denied a penalty. Basically, they hit us on the break after that and we were helpless (and probably knackered) in the last 15 minutes or so. So superior were we in the first half that Villa fans were seen leaving the ground at half time. The ground was buzzing and my daughter and I were really impressed and proud to be a Wycombe supporter, and remained so after they undeservedly conceded all those goals in the second half.

Right. How did I think we compared to the side I saw back then. To be honest, for the whole of the first half I wondered what the hell we were doing. Credit to Aldershot; they came for all 3 points and set about their task with admiral determination (unlike Wycombe who hardly won a 50/50 ball and looked decidedly second rate). This was a shadow of the side that were giving Villa the run around and there was absolutely nothing to get excited about.

The second half was a different story. I don’t know what Waddock said or did at half time but they came out a different team and gave me a good 20 minutes of pleasure as I stood right down by the pitch with my chips and hot chocolate. The move that led to Betsy’s goal split the defence wide open and the sheer power and speed of Betsy as he burst past the defender and smashed the ball in the net was a joy to behold. Even more memorable was the Betsy celebration as he leapt what seemed like 6 feet in the air flying directly towards me in spectacular fashion. I re-lived those seconds many times as I relayed the action to my family back in France’ I just wish I had been able to get a photo of that flying celebration as I’ve never seen anything like it before.

In that 20 minutes we could have sewn up the game but it wasn’t to be and of course we slipped up and dropped two valuable points. It leaves me with a dilemma in comparing the present side with the one I saw against Villa. Overall I have to say that there were so many gaping holes in mid field and defence that I think the current team would have been struggling against the earlier team. But if they could play for 90minutes like they did in that 20minute spell on Saturday we would have plenty to be excited about. We must fill those holes though if/when we go back to League 1 or we will be taken apart by any strong, pacey side. The Huddersfield annihilation that I watched with embarrassment on TV the other year springs to mind.

 

it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the home crowd and general atmosphere during the game ron because we often get criticised on the gas room for not making enough noise despite singing our hearts out every game,gary waddock praised the fans on tuesday night at barnet for being very noisy from start to finish but i didnt feel it was any louder than we are at adams park to be honest which proves my point about the acoustics in the valley end

 

Having been at the Barnet game on Tuesday the atmosphere was far better than it normally is on the terrace. I would concur with you that the reason for this could well be the acoustics. At times it seems that 120-150 away fans are louder than those in the terrace.

 

Thanks for the write up Ron, great that you made a game.
Frustrating to drop 2 pts against the lowly Shots but I made the game on Tues at Barnet and thankfully we got the right result even if the performance wasn't particularly inspirational.
Good atmosphere at the Barnet game with 480 away followers.
Need a win today now as we have 3 tough away games to follow. I reckon the away game at Shrews next week could define our fortunes this season though... win and I think we will do it

 

The atmosphere was great when we scored our second goal but apart from that it seemed fairly quiet. Mind you, in the first half there was nothing to give the crowd much to shout about. To create an atmosphere we need all the crowd round the ground to be chanting/singing and unfortunately it is only a minority making any noise. You may get more luck by keeping it simple so that everyone can join in. Constant "Come on you bues" would be easy to join in as would Wycombe, bang,bang,bang, Wycombe bang, bang bang. A song that everyone knows would also help. In my young days we used to sing our hearts out to the Happy Wanderers. Maybe a well known anthem like Land of Hope & Glory. Problem is orchestrating the crowd to join in but familiar chants and songs are more likely to achieve it.

When a team appears not to be up for it the chances of getting the crowd going are slim. Maybe the crowd needs educating to get the team going (I know that shouldn't be necessary but maybe the team are scared of not playing well in front of their home crowd).

 

It's really difficult to compare teams from past years versus current. It's one of those things that older fans in particular discuss regularly. Probably because we like to reminisce about the good old days..lol
I think you can look back to the M'On days and say that his teams were better. The team that got promoted to League 1 in 94/95 were more than capable of holding their own in that league without the masses of squad changes. On the other hand though, the lower leagues seem to have got stronger as some big names have slipped down the rankings i.e. Leeds / Southampton / Sheff Wed / Charlton etc etc.
You could also say that certain managers achieve more with a squad than others due to their man management skills / team ethics.

 

slasher on the evidence of the last few games not many of our current squad would be good enough to have got in those oneill teams

 

You are right Rocky!
Nicky Bull would definitely deserve a place, as would Ainsworth. Some others would be borderline and about half of the squad wouldn't come close

 

i think it was jswwfc that said on here a couple of days ago about bully if we didnt have him this season we would be halfway down the league by now

 

Yeah, he has certainly dug us out of numerous holes and has made memorable saves in most games i've seen.
Thank goodness he signed up when he did. Could you imagine League 1 with this squad and a poorer keeper...doesn't bear thinking about