Wycombe Wanderers 1 : 1 QPR

Wycombe Wanderers’ manager is usually an upbeat man in the post-match press conferences when he feels his side has played well.

Yet by all accounts, results have not matched the level of those performances. After Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers, I asked him whether he was frustrated by that.

Well, almost the opposite he said in the video interview above. He made the plausible case that good results on the back of bad performances can only carry you so far.

The alternative, and the one he has to contend with now, is that he has a side which at least in the second half yesterday, is playing to the best of its ability. However, it is still winless in seven and despite Saturday’s draw with a talented but off colour QPR, have slipped to the bottom of the table.

Rangers have plenty of talent that Ainsworth can only dream off.

Forward Lyndon Dykes is heading to the Euros with Scotland. Bright Osayi-Samuel is probably the best talent in the Championship, not to get an EPL deal, over the autumn. Geoff Cameron has played in the World Cup finals, playing against Ghana, Portugal and Belgium in 2014. I was lucky enough to be preset for all three games and he was by no means out of his depth.

However left back Joe Jacobson did a fine job restricting Osayi-Samuel’s creativity in a first half where QPR had most of the possession but oddly, Wycombe had the best two chances.

They came at the very start and the very end of the half. Adebayo Akinfenwa won aerial tussles against taller opponents all over the pitch and throughout the game. His first was to a second minute cross from the right. It fell to Scott Kashket who found an expertly placed QPR keeper Seny Dieng in the right place, not for the last time.

Former Ranger David Wheeler rose well to head goalwards on the stroke of half time only to be denied again by the Hoops’ Swiss custodian Dieng.

Roughly equidistant between those moments, a Wycombe player did find the net. Sadly for Jason McCarthy it was his effort that wrongfooted Ryan Allsop to give QPR the lead. It was hardly undeserved at the time.

QPR had been growing in confidence since Kashket’s miss and seemed to have the midfield and the game increasingly under control.

The second half was another matter.

Daryl Horgan took the game by the scruff of the neck and looked every inch a match winner. He dished out passes, took shots; once more forcing the best out of Dieng.

Wycombe had a decent claim for a penalty when Dykes leaned into the ball but their recurring harassment of the referee was too prolonged. Eventually Ainsworth had to yell “I’ll sort that. I’ll sort that” at Jacobson to leave the duty of conversing with whistler Gavin Ward to him.

To his credit, Ainsworth did so, offering copious ‘helpful ‘advice to Ward thereafter.

Towards the end of a dominant second half, Wanderers got the reward their form merited.

Albanian teenage substitute Anas Mehmeti showed composure on the ball that belied his youth. His shot was hardly unsaveable, but Dieng’s luck ran out and he could not keep the effort out of the terrace end goal.

Although QPR had continued to make chances, Allsopp did well to foil both Yoann Barbet and Chris Willock to keep his side in the game, but it was no more than the Chairboys deserved for a stirring second half performance.

Ainsworth can only play with the cards he has been dealt. He has no Adam Armstrong or Bryan Mbuemo to finish the finite amount of chances his side creates.

But in terms of spirit, he has the best cards in the pack. And as with their reaction to Gavin Ward’s non call, he can act as an additional player when his side temporarily lose their discipline.

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