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Wycombe v Grimsby

By: Alex Green
Date: 18/10/2007

AS most eyes turn to another sport on Saturday evening its fitting Grimsby travel to the home of one of Rugby Unions premier teams the London Wasps in a hope to win their first points in October playing Wycombe at Adams Park.

Home > 2007-2008 Season > Previews > Wycombe (a)


The Opposition

Overview

Wycombe sit in their usual spot just one place outside the playoffs with 17 points and an impressive home record with only one defeat this season. Former Livingston manager Paul Lambert is in his second season in charge at Adams Park and hopes to build on a mid table finish from last season. Wycombe have had a line of recent successful managers with Martin O’Neil John Gregory and Lawrie Sanchez all sitting in the dug out for the Chairboys Lambert has a tough act to follow firstly be getting Wycombe out of the bottom tier of league football. Lamberts career itself has been short but eventful his first and only other previous club was former SPL team Livingston with only five wins and 20 defeats Lambert was moved on in just 8 months adding to Livingston’s fall out of the Scottish Elite tier. At home this season Wycombe have turned a little part of Buckinghamshire in to a fortress while on the road The Wanderers have won only twice against struggling Bradford and inconsistent Macclesfield.

This Season
The end of last season saw legendary striker and Town curse Tommy Mooney move onto Walsall while much rated Jermaine Easter stayed after months of speculation that he would follow fellow Chairboy Nathan Tyson out of Wycombe. Replacing the experienced Mooney came in a man equally as experienced in the face of former Forest captain Gary Holt who left the City Ground in the summer after a disappointing campaign in Nottingham. Lambert has tried to focus on tried and tested men to include for this season with the signings of former Birmingham midfielder Tom Williams and midfielder Martin Bullock (left) formerly of Blackpool and Barnsley both have over 400 league games experience between them and have an impressive past of being powerful midfielders. Wycombe have always had an eye for a striker with previously mentioned Nathan Tyson grabbing all the headlines in a catastrophic season for Wycombe which many Wycombe fan and player would not want reminding of for many reasons. After Tyson's move to forest Jermaine Easter took up the slack and created an impressive striking partnership with the ever present Mooney. Only time will tell whether Easter has picked up an equally impressive duo with former Tottenham striker John Sutton also with nearly 200 league games under his belt.

Key Player
Scott McGleish has been around a bit now not unlike many of Wycombe’s squad the former Charlton player has played over 450 league games and even at the ripe age of 33 it doesn't seem to have dampened his eye to goal. Leading scorer already this season for the Chairboys McGleish has been able to pass on his experience to the likes of Easter and fellow youngsters at Adams Park. The striker may have lost some of the pace which decimated the lower league defenders while a forward at Barnet but McGleish has acquired that extra yard most pundits babble on about with a player reaching the end of his career.

Recent Form

TownWycombe
LRochdale(a)1-2
DRotherham(a)1-1 (4-2p)
LPeterborough(a)1-2
LChester(h)1-2
WHereford(h)2-1
Currently 20th in League Two.
LPeterborough(a)1-2
LSwansea (JPT)(a)0-2
WNotts Co(h)2-1
LBarnet(a)1-2
WBradford(a)1-0
Currently 8th in League Two.

Top Scorers

TownWycombe
Ciaran Toner4
Paul Bolland3
McGleish4
Bloomfield3

Team News

TownWycombe

  • New loan signing Shaleum Logan is expected to continue in at right back, but Justin Whittle is available to shore up the defence after being rested for the defeat by Rochdale.

  • Paul Bolland has been struggling for the last few weeks with an ankle injury and may be rested by Alan Buckley. James Hunt is available to play in midfield if required, as is Danny Boshell now his partner has given birth.

  • New signing Martin Butler will definitely start at front. The big question is whether Alan Buckley will partner his man with another striker or play 4-4-2 against Wycombe. Buckley has favoured 4-5-1 especially away from home, but may be tempted to play Gary Jones or Andy Taylor alongside the on-loan Walsall striker.
  • Look set to have a full pick of the squad and may remain unchanged from the side that was defeated against Peterborough
  • Probable Teams

    TownWycombe
    G1Barnes
    D14Logan
    D6Fenton
    D15Whittle (C)
    D3Newey
    M7Till
    M8Bolland
    M4Hunt
    M10Toner
    FTBAButler
    FRankin
    G34Fielding
    D4Martin
    D7McCracken (C)
    D20Johnson
    D25Stockley
    M11Bullock
    M15Holt
    M8Oakes
    M22Torres
    F16Sutton
    F17McGleish

    Subs

    TownWycombe
    13Montgomery
    5Bennett
    19Jones
    11Boshell
    20Taylor
    10Bloomfield
    32Reid
    31Boucaud
    33Kazimierczak
    12Williams

    Head to Head

    Wycombe are Grimsby's ultimate bogey side, only Sunderland only a better record than the Chairboys against Town in their history. Grimsby have only even beaten Wycombe once in their 12 meetings, and have never won in six visits to Adams Park. One crumb of comfort is that half the games between the sides have been draws.

    P 12 W 1 D 6 L 5 F 11 A 19

    Wycombe Head-to-Head (102nd on The Opposition Ladder)

    Last Meeting

    Grimsby 2-2 Wycombe (Mon 09th April 2007)

    The two sides last met in an end of season game last Easter at Blundell Park. It was notable as Town went 2-0 down and then came back to grab a point with goals from Jones and Bolland.

     Report

    Prediction

    Can town finally turn the season around can Andy Butler be the man we're looking for?

    Wycombe 0-1 Grimsby Town

    Reader's POMs

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