Wycombe's Magnificent Seven?
BY OPTA

Wycombe manager Lawrie Sanchez was on Sky Sports last week proclaiming that the Wanderers problems lay in defence rather than attack. The keen-eared folk at Opta Index were quick to use their unrivalled database to see whether this assertion was true, or whether Sanchez was misguided.

The table shows two main columns, shooting accuracy and goals to shots ratio. The former is perhaps the most important because it is often said that if you can get your shots on target then the results will come. If this is true then Wycombe are indeed doing well, because they have a number of players well above the average of 40-50 per cent.

Young striker Andy Baird has not been too active in front of goal this season, unleashing just six shots so far, but when he has done it has been worthwhile. A shooting accuracy of over 80 per cent is superb and if he is able to keep this figure high during the rest of the season then he could enjoy a campaign as fulfilling as 1998/1999 when he finished as the second highest scorer at the club.

Sean Devine is the man that all the critics rave about and his season's stats suggest that this is fair enough. 61 per cent of his attempts at goal have found the target and he has fired more shots at goal than any player in the league. He has converted these into goals regularly too, and a 21.05 per cent goals-to-shots ratio is commendable. If a forward can score a goal every five shots then he will accumulate a fair amount by the season's end.

The other main striker at Adams Park, Jermaine McSporran, is less precise. Wycombe fans have become accustomed to seeing many of the former Oxford City player's efforts fly wide during the game. The stats reveal that he has a shooting accuracy of just 38 per cent, putting him seventh at the club. McSporran has had 50 shots and yet has scored just four league goals. If he is to play in a higher division then surely he will need to sharpen his boots.

Finally, it is interesting to see Dave Carroll and Keith Ryan as the second and fourth most accurate shooters respectively. They are both men who have been with the Chairboys since the non-league days and are still going strong. Carroll is only a few goals short of 100 for Wycombe and if he can continue to get over 70 per cent of his attempts on target then he will surely achieve this ambition before the end of the season.

Statistics courtesy of Carling Opta