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Wanderers were beaten on the road for the first time in six months, going down 2-0 to Scunthorpe United in the Friday evening game at Glanford Park. After a lively opening from both sides it was Paul Hayes who opened the scoring on 27 minutes with a fantastic strike from 20 yards. Wycombe were then left reeling on 39 minutes when Stuart Nethercott was adjudged to have fouled Hayes in the penalty area and Andy Crosby made no mistake from the spot. Tony Adams changed things around shortly afterwards, bringing on new signing Zema Abbey for defender Charlie Comyn-Platt and in the second half he gave a Football League debut to 16 year old Youth Teamer Ikechi Anya. But the substitutions brought no change to Wycombe's fortunes in front of goal, the result seeing Wanderers slip to 6th place in the table, while Scunthorpe went second thanks to Yeovil losing late on at Rochdale.At 16 years and 279 days old, Anya became the youngest player to date to play for Wycombe in the Football League. He beat the previous record held by Roger Johnson which was set in May 2000 at 17 years and 8 days. Meanwhile, 6' plus striker Abbey had been brought in on the Thursday on a short term deal following his release from Norwich. The changes to Tony Adams' squad came in a week when Adam Birchall was unavailable due to a Welsh U21 call-up, loanee Bas Savage had returned to Reading and First Year Pro Andy Reilly had opted to call it a day with Wycombe. Those changes prompted Adams to start with a back three for the game at Glanford Park, while Nathan Tyson and Ian Stonebridge formed the front duo. It was Tyson who cause problems for the home side early on but he was frustrated on more than a couple of occasions by the offside trap. Wanderers had been practising their set-pieces during the week and it almost paid off on 15 minutes when Clint Easton's corner from the right saw Paul Musselwhite in the Scunny goal scramble the ball away at the far post as Stonebridge lay in waiting. The home side started to take control of the game on 27 minutes with a fantastic strike by Hayes from around 20 yards after he'd chested down a ball played in by Andy Crosby. The Iron then peppered Wanderers goal with Ian Baraclough and Nathan Stanton both going close. However, the home side were gifted a second goal when a dubious penalty decision saw Stuart Nethercott pulled up for a foul on Hayes. Crosby made no mistake from the spot and the home side never looked back from there. Tony Adams made changes to the formation shortly after the second goal with Charlie Comyn-Platt sacrificed for new signing Zema Abbey. The former Norwich player moved into a striking role alongside Nathan Tyson with Ian Stonebridge dropping back to the right of midfield as Wanderers reverted to what appeared to be a more regular 4-4-2 formation. Half-time Scunthorpe 2 Wycombe 0 Abbey went close with a glancing header a couple of minutes after the re-start but the remainder of the game turned into a scrappy affair with referee Lewis more than happy to dish out the yellow cards as Wanderers discipline continued to wane following bookings in the first half for Gary Silk and Gus Uhlenbeek for rash challenges. Wanderers had to rely on a header by Roger Johnson on 67 minutes to register an effort on goal when he got in an attempt that Musselwhite mananged to get behind but Johnson will probably feel he should have done better with. Tyson missed a good chance when he swung his left foot at an Abbey downward header but it was an evening of frustrtation for the loyal band of Wanderers supporters forced to make the trip on a Friday because of the England/Wales World Cup qualifier the following day at Old Trafford. Ikechi Anya came on for Keith Ryan in the 70th minutes to make a bit of history as he made enough impact from midfield to suggest he'll get another chance in the not too distant future. The home side had a few chances to increase their winning margin but they were more than happy to sit back and let Wycombe continue to fire blanks and leave Tony Adams plenty to think about with regards to fixing Wanderers lack of goals in recent games. Final Score - Scunthorpe 2 Wycombe 0 Speaking after the game to BBC Three Counties Radio Tony Adams said his team were very poor defensively first-half, adding "We just didn't handle it, the two big guys up front and when you give teams like this two goal leads it is very difficult to come back." The Wycombe boss said he moved to change things after the second goal, commenting "I needed to change things around pretty quickly because we could have been four or five down by half-time." Adams took some postives from the second-half display but concluded "We know we have got limitations and we've just to pick up the pieces and go on. I've been hoping to turn the squad around a little bit but not as much as the finance dictated to turn it around completely. Scunthorpe have been in this league for a long time now and they've learnt how to play at this level and we are just getting to terms with it." By contrast Scunthorpe boss Brian Laws was beaming in the press conference, saying "We're delighted to get the result against a very good side, we got at Wycombe from the off and that was a key factor. We played our best football for a while in the first half, we were awesome and it could have been 5-0, we let them off the hook a bit in the first half. I knew in the second half they would come at us and try everything to get themselves back in the game. There were a couple of scares from corners and that was the only way I could see them getting a goal. Wycombe hadn't lost away from home, they are a good side, so that is credit to the way our players performed." On the penalty decision he said "I thought the penalty decision looked harsh but the players have told me there was a deliberate push in the back."
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