Youthful Blues’ side beat Burnham 2-1

A Wycombe Wanderers XI won 2-1 at Zamaretto League Division One Central side Burnham this evening.


Line Up

Arnold

McCoy Stewart Johnson Steer

Green Kewley-Graham Belcher Harris (Olukanmi 80)

Weemes Fitchett


Wycombe’s first chance of the game was created by young midfielder Jesse Kewley-Graham, whose teasing cross was chested goalwards by Dan Fitchett only for Burnham keeper Paul McCarthy to make a comfortable save.

Stuart Green then spurned a glorious opportunity to open the scoring for the Chairboys when he found himself in the clear with only McCarthy to beat. Firing his initial shot straight at the keeper, Green was given another chance when the ball rebounded back to him but he could only slice his second shot wide of the post.

Leon Johnson played his first full ninety minutes of the season tonight, and began what turned out to be an eventful evening for him by heading a Stuart Green corner goalwards only to see the ball cleared off the line by a Burnham defender.

New signing Marvin McCoy was again showing his attacking prowess with a series of pacey runs down the right flank. Twice in quick succession he ghosted past his opposite number with ease, once crossing for Green to head the ball wide and the other time narrowly missing the target himself with a fine shot from a difficult angle.

The opening goal after 27 minutes was scored by Lee Weemes who collected an excellent through ball from Dan Fitchett and coolly slotted it past keeper McCarthy.

Weemes had a great opportunity to double his tally shortly afterwards but this time his composure deserted him and McCarthy kept it out.

Wycombe keeper Steve Arnold enjoyed mixed fortunes in this game. Guilty of some dodgy clearances straight to the opposition and partially at fault for the Burnham goal, he also made a couple of very impressive saves, the first of which prevented a well-placed free-kick from finding the top corner of his net after 35 minutes.

The equaliser arrived shortly afterwards when an aimless long ball from Burnham had Leon Johnson back-pedalling to stay under it, before blindly nodding it backwards towards Arnold who had ventured so far off his line that he could only watch it sail over his head and into the empty net.

Two minutes into the second half, trialist Rene Steer combined well with Lee Weemes on the left flank in a slick build-up to the winning goal which left Stuart Green with the simple task of firing the ball into an empty net at the back post.

After a nervous start, left-back Steer definitely improved as the game progressed. Rather like McCoy, he seemed very comfortable with the ball at his feet and appeared to enjoy bombing forward at the slightest opportunity. It was difficult to judge how good he is defensively, but he certainly looks the part and it would be interesting to see how he copes against stronger opposition.

A second-half collision between Leon Johnson and Steve Arnold left the defender on the deck and obviously in pain, but after a worrying few minutes of treatment, the good news was he was able to rejoin the game and continue until the final whistle.

Neither side could conjure up another goal, but Fitchett had a shot blocked on the line and Burnham almost snatched an equaliser only to be thwarted by a smart save from Arnold at his near post.