Wycombe Wanderers 4-0 Crawley Town
Wycombe Wanderers cemented their play-off position this afternoon with a 4-0 drubbing of Crawley Town at Adams Park.
After a hard fought, physical opening period that ended goalless, few would have predicted the second half onslaught from the hosts, opened up by a magical goal from Eberechi Eze and glossed by a fantastic quick fire hat-trick from Craig Mackail-Smith.
Gareth Ainsworth made four changes to the team that lost at Morecambe with Adam El-Abd, Luke O’Nien, Matt Bloomfield and Paris Cowan-Hall restored to the team in place of Dan Scarr, Marcus Bean, Sam Saunders and Nick Freeman who all dropped to the bench.
On a soaking wet afternoon, the Chairboys looked to get the ball down and play from the first whistle on a slippery surface but initially struggled to get the play moving into the attacking third.
The first chance of note actually arrived for the visitors after ten minutes when Dutch striker Thomas Verheydt flicked a dangerous header towards the bottom corner which Scott Brown did well to react to, getting down and pushing the effort behind for a corner.
That would be it for the half in terms of Crawley opportunities, but their stubbornness prevailed as their players appealed and challenged for everything. Verheydt didn’t take long to make himself a pantomime villain for a combination of play-acting and complaints to referee Antony Coggins and he wasn’t alone.
The opening opportunity for Wanderers came after 18 minutes following a delicious Joe Jacobson delivery but Anthony Stewart could only head the ball into the ground, the ball then bouncing off the crossbar to safety.
It was a huge chance passed up and the centre back again went close to opening the scoring from a corner just before the half hour mark but again he was denied, this time from close range by a sharp stop from the Red Devils goalkeeper Glenn Morris.
Immediately afterwards Luke O’Nien found the net with a looping header but it was chalked off by referee Coggin for, presumably, a foul on Morris by Mackail-Smith who was harshly yellow-carded.
It looked a harsh call but it meant Wycombe went into the break goalless after a physical contest, the only other chance coming from a Cowan-Hall header that was straight at Morris.
After a tight opening period, the game was lit up by a goal of pure genius by Eze five minutes into the second half.
The QPR loanee ghosted past a couple of opposition men, traded passes with Akinfenwa before majestically jinking his way past three more creepy Crawlies and sumptuously clipping the ball into the bottom corner past a helpless Morris. It was a goal to grace any league.
Soon afterwards Cowan-Hall had another opportunity after being released in space by Jacobson but the winger decided to cut inside and was crowded out.
Eze was running the show now and after having his shirt pulled, the resulting free kick from the loanee was goal bound but deflected behind for a corner.
Harry Kewell then decided to gamble with a double change, Lewis and Camara replacing Jordan Roberts and Aryan Tajbakhsh for the visitors.
Wycombe were growing into the game however and the tide refused to turn, Mackail-Smith having a shot deflected over before Eze was denied by a parried save from goalkeeper Morris.
There was one big scare for the hosts when Josh Payne took aim from distance and his curling shot deflected inches wide with Scott Brown helpless.
Straight up the other end though, the pressure became too much for Crawley as Akinfenwa found space, released Mackail Smith who caressed the ball superbly into the far top corner from a tight angle to double the lead, much to the relief of the home crowd.
Marcus Bean then replaced a tiring Luke O’Nien in midfield as Wycombe looked to close the game out.
They needn’t have worried much though, more Eze magic teeing a cross up for Bean who took the sting out of the ball, allowing Mackail-Smith to match his earlier strike with a superb blast into the top corner.
Incredibly, but deservedly, Mackail-Smith then completed an eleven minute hat-trick on 83 minutes. Again the Beast was the architect with his third assist of the afternoon, curling a left footed cross to Mackail-Smith who was in acres of space and picked his spot for a superb hat-trick.
Sam Saunders and Dayle Southwell then replaced Akinfenwa and Cowan-Hall with 5 or so minutes remaining, both players earning a deserved ovation from the majority of a healthy 4,494 crowd inside Adams Park.
Equally as pleasing was a clean sheet at the other end as Wycombe won for the first time in the league this season while also shutting out the opposition at the other end to go 6th in the League Two table.
Ratings: Brown (7), Gape (7), Stewart (8), El-Abd (7), Jacobson (7), O’Nien (7) (Bean 75′), Bloomfield (7), Eze (9), Cowan-Hall (7) (Saunders 85′ N/A), Akinfenwa (8) (Southwell 85′ N/A), Mackail-Smith (9*)
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