One Game at a Time Why-come Wanderers (A) October 1st | PASOTI
  • This site is sponsored by Lang & Potter.

One Game at a Time Why-come Wanderers (A) October 1st

Status
Not open for further replies.

pafcprogs

🌟 Pasoti Laureate 🌟
Apr 3, 2008
1,160
2,817
Westerham Kent
One Game at a Time

Why-come Wanderers (A) October 1st

There are certain things fans look for when the team sheets come out. And one of the first is the Immutable Law of the Ex. What sounds like a piece of footballing balderdash was recently studied by four HR professionals, looking at the impact of disaffected ex-employees. The study by Pazzaglia, Sonpar, De Holan and Flynn, published in 2012 and covering over 400 Premier League matches found there was indeed a correlation between performance of disgruntled former players and their ex-employers.

No surprises therefore that the inclusion of Freddie Ladapo, disaffection personified, by Kieran McKenna, worked the oracle when a lucky rebound off Dan Scarr’s shin looped the ball into Michael Coopers net to give the (then) League leaders a half time advantage.

Given that Scott Oldham, the referee was walking a tightrope with the match assessor over why he had neglected to take his red card onto the pitch with him, there was no surprise when he missed the Chaplin/Houghton foul. Thankfully rather than the penalty for backing in by Chaplin, it was perhaps slightly against the run of play when another of those quirks of footballing fate, the concession to the player who used to play for, or is on loan from, your bitterest rival, led to an unexpected if deserved equaliser. Mumba number 2, so far.

Once again Schuey’s changes did precisely that to the game, and not long afterwards a fizzing Whitaker twenty yarder sent the Green Army wild, and the Tractor Boys for the second week running had let slip a lead against one of their closest rivals.

There was one final twist in the tail, as having removed Ladapo from the fray, Town had to send up former Devonport ender Christian Walton for a ninety sixth minute last gasp equaliser attempt.

Sadly, for the shot stopper his looping, cross bar striking goal bound effort was foiled by the Immutable Claw Away from the Ex by Michael Cooper. Joe 90 completed the block and that was that. Walton apparently still looks out for the Argyle results each week. Good news Christian, we won.

In what the Sky experts called an advert for League One football, and several MMA commentators called a pretty good audition by the Blue team for a cage fighting contract, the end result was Argyle reach the notionally significant ten game milestone sitting happily top of the league. Pompous still have a game in hand and so could overhaul us, although their next match is a trip to East Anglia.

If Argyles Achilles heel last season was failing to win against their fellow promotion contenders, wins against Derby, Barnsley, Bolton, Ipswich, and even Posh before they spiralled down to the lower reaches, have shown that what looked a challenging schedule when it first came out, now looks a lot more manageable. That late equaliser by Pompous tastes a little less bitter now.

If the arrival of said new seasons fixture lists generates excitement and speculation amongst the supporters of all clubs, it is safe to say that there are two dates on the Argyle calendar that are met with deep and unrelenting sighs. This weekend sees the first one coming up. No prizes for guessing the second.

In last season’s ridiculous chase to the play offs, it was almost inevitable that Argyle would be pipped to the post by the team that lives rent free in the heads of most ardent Argyle fans. Why-come achieved in two games what MK Dons then achieved in one humiliating finale, with their 5-0 aggregate across our two matches. If Argyle had won just one of those two Wycombe games, then it would have been positions reversed in the table. Indeed, those three fixtures accounted for just over 20% of the league goals conceded by Argyle last season.

And if ever there was ground for which the saying it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive applied then it is Adams Park. If you look at the fixture historically, in fact Adams Park holds a lot less fear for Argyle than many others. It is around the thirtieth most rewarding ground for Argyle over their post war playing history.

If, however, there was a ground from which travelling away from post-match was ever going to be hopeful, Adams Park wouldn’t make the top hundred. With it being situated at the end of an industrial cul-de-sac which then must try and empty itself onto a busy local road, there are several things you could comfortably do whilst leaving the ground after the match. Learn the basics of almost any Indo-European language being one. Perhaps read a couple of Charles Dickens novels (the short ones obviously. I wouldn’t want to exaggerate). Or listen to the entire repertoire of Cold Blooded Hearts, approximately two hundred and fifty times.

And in recent visits getting away from Adams Park is all an Argyle fan has wanted to do.

Given the fixture has a truncated history at best, the first games taking place in the 1994/5 relegation season, it does beg the question as to why a club that didn’t even turn professional until Paul Mariner made his Argyle debut should have such an inversely proportional impact on the psyche of the Green Army compared to their overall role within its history. Even then they only did so because the FA abolished amateur football. Previously the newest Wanderers had a limited impact on the footballing world, other than a brief run at FA Cup giant killing in 1975, which ended at Ayresome Park in the third round.

In those days the club played its home games at Loakes Park, moving to Adams Park (named for former captain and long-time benefactor Frank Adams, rather than as a tribute to any abrasive Scottish managers of rivals) in 1990. The old ground was sold to make way for Wycombe Hospital and was briefly known as the Causeway Stadium for a couple of seasons in the early noughties. The ground is small with a capacity of just under ten thousand, or approximately double what they need on average, putting the why come into Wycombe, and the Premier League of the “Your grounds too big for you” stakes.

The stadium itself is listed as the fourth most entertaining place in Wycombe, behind the Swan Theatre (as opposed to the Dying Swan Theatre Adams Park can resemble).

Having turned pro the club eventually alighted on Martin O’ Neill as manager, and having won promotion to the Football League, they promptly decided they quite liked winning things and so did it again via the play offs. When the future Celtic boss elected to leave for Norwich the club appointed Alan Smith, formerly the boss of Crystal Palace and eventual mentor of current England boss Gareth Southgate.

Aided and abetted by David Kemp, Smith was in charge for a tumultuous year before being replaced by John Gregory. This was a reversal of Kemp and Gregory’s order in charge at Home Park, but with a similar lack of success. Smith seemingly lost the dressing room, followed by the fans when club favourite Simon Barker was despatched on loan to Torquay after allegedly listening to Smith tell his new charges how he got Palace promoted to the Premier League. He then pointedly remarked that Smith had also promptly got them relegated back out of it. Garner was finally given away to Woking, and Smith and Kemp were fired after a 3-1 lead at Posh turned into a 6-3 defeat.

Having rejected Laurie Sanchez when he had applied previously, the Wimbledon FA Cup winner arrived following the departure of Neil Smillie, and together with Terry Gibson they sought to steer the club away from a return to the basement division. Gibson, when this was achieved bought a five-foot-tall replica of a Comanche Chief (or as he would call it Extra large) and the Wycombe Comanche was regarded by fans and players as a lucky charm. It is currently on loan to the Manchester Football Museum, but the Wanderers may have a January recall clause. At least the club that seems to have the Indian sign over us does have its very own Indian.

Sanchez was to resume his love affair with the FA Cup by taking Wycombe to an unlikely semi final game with Liverpool in 2000/1. Having beaten first division sides Grimsby Town (I’ll pause and let that sink in), Wolves and Wimbledon (and again, pause), the club faced a quarter final at Leicester City bereft of strikers. A plea for unattached uncuptied forwards to make themselves known was picked up by a journalist at the BBC who placed it on Ceefax. There it was spotted by journeyman striker Roy Essandoh, and after a brief trial he signed a short-term contract.

Coming on as a late sub at Filbert Street, Essandoh scored a last-minute winner, his only Wanderers goal, to earn the semi-final match and a place in FA Cup folk lore. And until the arrival of a certain long haired long serving current manager Gareth Ainsworth, despite dalliances with Tony Adams, John Gorman, Peter Taylor and Paul Lambert, that was peak Wycombe. Adams may not last as long on Strictly as he did at Adams Park, but it is going to be close.

The cup semi-final run, much like ours in 1984 gave a brief foray into the media spotlight, to a club so new and overlooked they struggled to have a decent league rivalry, having left Slough Town behind. A flirtation with Colchester, another club that has no natural enemy that cares about them flared up briefly and then flickered and died.

Then after dispensing with Gary Waddock, the club appointed player Gareth Ainsworth, first as caretaker, and then a month or so later permanently. Ten years later he is still there and still hasn’t bought shampoo, a comb or figured out how shirt buttons work.

It didn’t start so well. The club was poised to go out of the league in 2013/14 before a last day victory at Torquay, combined with a one nil win for Mansfield over Bristol Rovers allowed Wanderers to escape the drop back into non-league at Rovers expense.

Ainsworth rebuilt the team and in 2014/15 Argyle and Why Come found themselves as opponents for the prize of a Wembley play-off trip. After racing to a three-nil lead, a “Three Little Birds” inspired Argyle come back left the game still in the balance. That soon was ended by an early second leg Paul Hayes goal, and Wycombe went to Wembley, where having led by a Jacobson strike via the crossbar and back of the goalkeepers head, they contrived to allow a late equaliser and lost the penalty shoot-out to Southend.

If the bad blood between the clubs started then with some mild taunting over the Three Little Birds, unwisely pushed by the then marketing team at Argyle, it began to bubble over the following season. Never a man to shy away from a conflict, Derek Adams tried to shake hands with Ainsworth after a home defeat, but the Whycome boss angrily refused. Whether that was in response to the loss of keeper Alex Lynch through injury or the general poor atmosphere of a match where the Wanderers used every trick in the book to break up play and escape with a 1-0 win, we will never know. An ill-judged official Argyle tweet aimed at a team, whose front three of Hayes, Ugwu and Cowan Hall was probably the unlikeliest ex Argyle forward line to command a win at Home Park ever stoked the flames.

Whycome fans still seethe at the booing of Lynch, who later retired, although not from the injury received, as he later played non-league football and has admitted to leaving the game due to suffering from panic attacks and personal issues. Argyle fans still allow the cynical tactics, timewasting and general game playing by players, coaches and even ground staff to get under their skin. That next season it was Argyle who made it to Wembley, where Wimbledon were the banana skin that delayed their promotion by a season, aided and abetted by future Whycome talisman Ade Akinfenwa.

Since that bad tempered January 2016 match, for which both clubs were fined, it is seven unbeaten for the Wanderers against the Greens. Whether or not their tactics influence the outcome they have certainly managed comfortable victories recently. A peruse of other clubs’ fans websites would seem to indicate that they as a club do seem to suffer from an unusually high incidence of play stopping “head injuries” none of which seem to result in long term, or even short-term impact to the players treated.

As the second longest serving manager with a current club, behind Simon Weaver of Harrogate, Ainsworth and his squad have developed a style which eventually got them to the Championship. This single season elevation was after a play-off victory at an empty Wembley (Covid this time rather than lack of fans generally) over an Oxford side that to this day remain convinced the winning goal was caused by a “leave it“ call from a Whycome player that deceived the U’s defender and so ended mired in controversy.

More allegations were to follow. This time the rule breakers were Derby County who managed to escape punishment and points deductions for their financial irregularities, and, playing players that Whycome and others argued they were not strictly entitled to, gained a last day draw with the Wendies that sent the Wanderers and the Wendies into the third tier. That Derby subsequently agreed compensation with Wycombe and Middlesbrough, and took their points deduction a season later, along with relegation merely confirmed what every fan knows. Cheats sometimes prosper…but not for long.

So, whilst it is hardly “Dirty Leeds” under Don Revie, Ainsworth and his squad have embraced the narrative of “Plucky Little Wycombe” and built a siege mentality. After a last gasp surge past Argyle to reach the play offs the club lost to Sunderland, a club their Chairman perhaps unwisely riled with a pre match jibe of them being a Netflix club. Someone should use Derek Adams £5 book token allegedly sent to him after a game at Adams Park by a Whycome fanzine to buy them the tale of the Frog and the Scorpion.

After this season’s slow start, with an ageing Wanderers squad, christened Dad’s Army by the Bolton Fansite, not helped by injuries to key players, now returning, like Sam Vokes, and with some sparkling displays by Anis Mehmeti who caused us all kinds of problems at Home Park last season, Argyle should go to the game with nothing to fear as we lead the division.

And Wycombe. If you think your reputation as upstanding paragons of virtue is being wrongly impugned then it is probably a mistake to be celebrating, as they bizarrely did in 2018, the twenty fifth anniversary of what has been widely agreed is the worst tackle in football league history. Perpetrated by Jason Cousins on David Moss, the tackle, was a two footed assault at midriff level, which made the (Harald) Shumacher (no relation) World Cup atrocity on Patrick Battison look merely a little misjudged, and slightly mistimed.

Cousins walked. Of course he did, but remarkably only for a second yellow card for the tackle! Moss survived and played on. Ian St John no less called the tackle a criminal act.

Let’s hope for Argyle finally stealing three points, and the only criminal record on Saturday being the excruciating rendition of “the Wanderer(s)” by the aforementioned Cold Blooded Hearts (lead singer one G Ainsworth). Hang your heads in shame Cherry Red records.

COYG!!!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.