Toughest test at crucial stage as Town travel to Wycombe

Wycombe Wanderers v Northampton Town
League Two
Saturday, April 16th 2011

There aren’t a lot worse games than we could face when on a run of fifteen games without a win than Wycombe Wanderers away from home. The Chairboys are deservedly in the top three and are three points clear of fourth in their bid to return to League One at the first attempt. Gary Waddock’s rebuilding of the squad in January of last year came too late to save them from the drop but the former Aldershot man has helped Wanderers to within a few games of an instant return.

A draw at Sixfields in August was seen as a real positive in our stuttering start to the season and that shows what an uphill task we face coming up against a confident Wycombe side that came from two goals down in the M40 derby last weekend to draw 2-2 at Oxford and make it five games without defeat. The last four league meetings between Wanderers and the Cobblers have ended in draws and a fifth in that sequence would be a fine result despite this frustrating and worrying run of winless games.

If we’re to get anything then ex Posh striker Scott Rendell and veteran Gareth Ainsworth will both have to be stopped. Rendell has struck sixteen times this season, including the first at Oxford, whilst Ainsworth has been on fire since joining the club just over a year ago. The 37-year-old has shown no signs of letting up from his slick, skilful ways and has ran rings around defenders half his age this season! Ainsworth is a doubt but could well make the bench. At the other end, Wanderers have kept an impressive fifteen clean sheets this term, so the form of Shaun Harrad and Guillem Bauza is crucial to the cause.

Bauza and Byron Webster, signed new deals at the club this week and are with us now until the end of the season so both are available tomorrow. Chris Dunn needed fourteen stitches in his head after the collision early in the Bury game and will be missing for a couple of weeks at least. Michael Jacobs only played a half last weekend but is fully fit once again after recovering from illness but John Johnson and Andy Holt are still doubtful.

So with both side so desperate for the win that could save one side or lift the other, it’s a crunch game with permutations ringing out at both ends of the league no matter what the result! It would take one hell of a performance to finally end this winless streak but stranger things, most certainly, have happened!