Blues let their standards slip in narrow loss

Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 Plymouth Argyle (Hourinhane 48′)

An isolated moment of quality in a scrappy, forgettable game from midfielder Conor Hourihane saw Plymouth Argyle leave Adams Park with all three points this evening.

After enjoying a six game unbeaten run, the wheels came off for Wycombe tonight in a disjointed performance that lacked a tactical plan and any real quality.

Gareth Ainsworth gave youngster Jesse Kewley-Graham a rare chance as he replaced Josh Scowen. Matt McClure started up front in place of the injured Paris Cowan-Hall. Stuart Lewis (hamstring) and Matt Spring (groin) were ruled out alongside long term absentees Tommy Fletcher, Gary Doherty and Charles Dunne and the Chairboys only named six substitutes. Anyone know where Jon-Paul Pittman went?

An even first half ended goalless as both sides struggled to create any meaningful chances. The opening fifteen minutes was incredibly scrappy although the visitors did at least look capable of stringing a spell of possession together, even if it lacked any penetration.

Max Kretzschmar saw a free kick from fully 40 yards blocked after 20 minutes, and soon after Matt Ingram, on his 50th Wycombe appearance, failed to deal with a bouncing back pass and sliced it dreadfully for a corner kick. The danger was cleared but a following free kick was again misjudged by the young keeper. It was however too deep for ex-Wycombe striker Reuben Reid to head back across goal and the ball landed harmlessly on the roof of the net.

Dean Morgan, with a spring in his step after scoring against Hartlepool United, was producing some good hold up play and one tantalising cross narrowly evaded Kewley-Graham as another ex-Wycombe player, Matt Parsons, did well to deal with the danger.

Durrell Berry then had the first meaningful effort on goal as the Chairboys continually failed to clear their lines, but the right wing back fired wide. Finally Wycombe put together a passing passage of play on 35minutes and McCoy’s cross saw McClure test Jake Cole for the first time with a header that was comfortably held.

Plymouth continued to stroke the ball around efficiently in deep areas but chances were at a premium. Sam Wood’s corner was only just tipped on to and over the bar by Cole and referee Andy Davies, fussy throughout, brought an uneventful first half to a close.

Plymouth came out of the blocks fired up for the second half and had already forced two corners in the opening couple of minutes thanks to a sixty yard run by Curtis Nelson. The second of these was inexplicably headed back across the box into danger by McCoy, and Hourinhane promptly took a touch and hammered it in off the far post, giving Ingram no chance for his fifth goal of the season.

The goal finally woke Wycombe up and McClure soon ran down the left hand side and fired a shot narrowly wide, but the front man twisted an ankle in doing so and limped off to be replaced by Steven Craig. Reid then controlled a long ball and hammered a 25 yard effort goalwards only to be thwarted by a diving Ingram at full stretch. Cole then made a hash of Morgan’s cross but no one gambled and the danger was cleared.

Matt Bloomfield was again leading by example in the Wycombe midfield and after surging past a couple of opposition players he was cynically floored by Trotman who was perhaps fortunate only to see yellow.

Gareth Ainsworth then bafflingly decided to substitute Morgan and any chance of the ball sticking up top went off with him. He was withdrawn alongside Arnold, who had been playing Scowen’s holding role tonight and made us all realise how much of a miss the suspended midfielder is for the team, turning in a very poor performance characterised by aimless long punts either out of play or to the opposition. Kuffour and Styche replaced the pair.

What the Wycombe fans now had to endure was a lot of long ball pumped in to Styche, Kuffour and Craig who unsurprisingly failed to win many challenges against the tall centre backs Trotman and Nelson. On a rare occasion Kuffour burst through with the ball at feet but he couldn’t find a team mate. McCoy summed up his own performance by hammering a long range effort high into the Valley End.

Tope Obadeyi replaced Lewis Alessandra for the Pilgrims and he nearly sealed the win, firing narrowly over the bar as five minutes of injury time were signalled. Obadeyi then rang the length of the field to force another corner and the Green Army successfully kept the ball in the corner and the game was up.

As soon as Plymouth scored, they were happy to sit back and Wycombe simply ran out of ideas. They didn’t look like they knew how to break the opposition down but the substitutes didn’t help and Morgan’s hold up play was sadly missed after he was withdrawn. There may have been a lack of quality but there was no tactical plan as long balls were mopped up with ease.

The Chairboys drop to 20th position, four points shy of the top half and also four points ahead of 23rd placed Northampton Town.

Ratings: Ingram (5), McCoy (4), Stewart (6), Johnson (5), Wood (4), Arnold (4) (Styche (76′ (5)), Kretzschmar (5), Bloomfield (7*), Kewley-Graham (5), Morgan (6) (Kuffour (76′ (5)), McClure (6) (Craig (57′ (3))

Attendance: 3,042 (612 from Plymouth)