Wycombe players celebrate their first league goal of the Championship season

Wycombe Wanderers 1 : 2 Millwall

There was an afternoon of general craziness at the Lords Stand end of Adams Park with some moments that will be at worst remembered and at best featured in many a ‘what happened next’ quiz show.

Shame on those of you who are already stereotypically thinking “if there’s crazy it must have involved goalkeepers”. Of course, shame or not, you’re absolutely right. It did.

Wycombe had not scored a competitive league goal since Joe Jacobson netted a 79th minute penalty in the League One play-off final at Wembley on July 13th, 96 days ago. But after four goalless games, the game’s first oddity ended that spell.

Millwall keeper Bartosz Białkowski played the ball out from the back. Several defenders tried to do something with it and with every pass, they got their side into more trouble.

Eventually it was rolled back to the Polish goalkeeper who found the ball stuck under his feet by which time the diminutive Scott Kashket was on his case. Seeing the Pole’s distress, Kashket stuck out his foot opportunistically and watched in glee as the ball rolled into the net.

Wycombe’s players were ecstatic and the forward soon found himself buried under a huddle of light and dark blue bodied shirts.

For the remainder of the half, Wycombe looked more than able to hold off a Millwall side that looked a long way from the team that flirted with a promotion play-off slot till very late last season. Wycombe led at half time and they looked able to break their points duck as well as their goals duck.

It was a different Millwall that emerged from the dressing room. And Wycombe’s ability to resist departed. Jed Wallace had been Millwall’s best creator in a poor first half show but he smashed home a penalty after Matt Smith had been fouled by a defender trying to impede him connecting with another Wallace cross.

The game’s most controversial moment followed. A Joe Jacobson’s corner curled unimpeded into the Millwall net. As the Chairboys celebrated, referee Andy Madley ruled it out for a foul on Białkowski that few saw. On EFL on Quest later that evening, Dean Ashton spotted that goalscorer Kashket had grabbed the keeper’s glove.

If that was the reason for the disallowal, then Madley did a fantastic job spotting it.

After that, the main resistance to Millwall’s domination was the crossbar. Mahlon Romeo’s header to a Smith cross floated in the air for an eternity as we all stood (or sat) still before cannoning off the bar.

The fixing of the Lords End goal delayed the restart for eight minutes

Jake Cooper with great vision saw Wanderers keeper Ryan Allsop off his line and hit an audacious effort from the half way line. The ball hit the bar but as Allsop scrambled back, he wrecked the goal causing the net to collapse much to the amusement of Lions midfielder Ryan Woods whose wide smile remained for eight minutes as the goal was fixed.

The crossbar could only save Wycombe for so long and Ryan Leonard fired home the winning goal as the pressure mounted.

Lions manager Gary Rowett told the Buckinghamshire Fee Press:

“It’s why they got promoted and they’re a side that do not have the budget in this division, so they’ll fight for everything and they’ll get results.

“I said to Gareth that he should be proud of his team as they will get results.”

Ainsworth also noted that he believes their first win is not far away. Their next two games are Reading  and Norwich away. They will need more of the luck that kept Millwall at bay for so long to return with any booty before Watford are the next visitors.

Millwall host two sides who fought the drop last year, Luton Town and Barnsley and must see those as a chance to improve even further on their current seventh place.

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