The end of a run of the mill season

Champers footy at long last

14 wins, 18 draws, 14 defeats

Walsall...0

Wycombe Wanderers...1

AFTER improving on their previous season's points tally, Wycombe went one better on the away victories front too, courtesy of this engaging triumph at the Bescot Stadium. It was a victory that also provided a telling symmetry to the league table, with 14 wins, 18 draws, and 14 defeats.

Those final statistics tell all you need to know about this wholly average season, enlivened occasionally by performances of great magnitude and sporadically marred by dismal capitulation. If the best 11 at Wycombe Wanderers perform to their best ability they are a side that can challenge for honours, but there is scant evidence that the current set of players are capable of putting together even the shortest of winning runs.

Saddled with a lack of funds, and rumours of top midfielder Steve Brown departing, one feels for Neil Smillie as he seeks to live up to the hype generated by individuals at the football club, who seek to impose an ideology that all's well at Wycombe Wanderers.

Of course that isn't the case, but the ever-expanding products of the youth team, and the appointment of a manager who will be keen to impress, and seems refreshingly free of ego, are two things to be cheerful about. Only a fool would fail to recognise the impressive course that Wycombe have charted, likewise only a fool would seek to suppress genuine angst at another sterile 0-0 draw.

Thankfully this end of season match was far from that, as Walsall flew out of the traps to alert Wycombe that there was a game to be competed. In the opening period, one could have believed that Walsall were fighting for their division two lives, and the Midlanders' early possession supremacy could have resulted in the lead.

But Wycombe soon took a grip on the game, and took the lead in the 18th minute. An exceedingly dry pitch, complete with erratic bounce, caused all manner of problems for the Walsall centre-backs throughout the game, but not on this occasion for Paul Read. Covering for the absent Keith Scott, Read judged the bounce to perfection, and nipped in between the keeper and defender to nod the bouncing long ball over the grasping custodian for 1-0.

From this point until half-time, shell-shocked Walsall could only stand and watch as Wycombe played what can only be described as champagne football! Orchestrated by Dave Carroll, and supplemented by the tireless running of wing-backs Beeton and Kavanagh, Wanderers fashioned enough chances to kill the game, but Stallard was having one of his wasteful days, and Read was dreadfully unlucky when his brave header was hacked off the line. However, Walsall answered back after all this pressure when Gary Porter let rip from the edge of the box, only for Martin Taylor to respond with a top class save low to his right.

The home side concentrated on shutting down the Wanderers' midfield, and although this upped their showing, it failed to provide an equaliser, leaving Wycombe to clock up their 60th point of a perfectly run-of-the mill season.

- By Andy Dickinson

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.