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Wycombe Wanderers 1
Saturday 23rd April 2005
Football League 'League Two'
Ian Stonebridge in action at Yeovil Wanderers survived a second half onslaught from promotion chasing Yeovil Town at Huish Park to come away with a 1-1 draw. Wycombe had initially silenced the home fans when Clint Easton curled in a free-kick on 23 minutes to register his first ever goal in a Wanderers shirt. However, the home side were back on level terms two minutes later when Frank Talia was beaten from all of 30 yards after Lee Johnson fired into the top right hand corner of the Wycombe net. Wanderers were on the back foot for most of the second half with a combination of poor finishing and quality shot stopping from Talia keeping John Gorman's side in the game. The first serious chance the Wycombe contingent had to cheer about came in the 79th minute when Mark Philo cut in from the right before seeing his shot deflected over. Bartosz Trachulsk missed a glorious chance to win it for Yeovil with four minutes remaining then with stoppage time called it was Nathan Tyson who came within six inches of stealing all three points when the ball flashed across the face of the goal but he was unable to get a decent touch and the ball crept wide of the right hand upright.
John Gorman made two changes to the side that had lost at home to Bury the previous week - Danny Senda was forced to sit out with a thigh strain and Gus Uhlenbeek dropped back to fill the right-back role. Clint Easton returned from his injury on the opposite flank leaving Joe Burnell to revert to midfield where Keith Ryan was favoured in place of Ian Stonebridge. Elsewhere Reserve 'keeper Lance Cronin was set to make his Wycombe debut until Frank Talia declared himself fit in the final minutes before kick-off having suffered with food poisoning the previous day.
The first half turned out to be a fairly cagey affair. The first real chance came on 10 minutes when Steve Claridge scrambled in at the near post to send a header wide following a cross from the right from Matt Bloomfield. Claridge, with his West Country connections at Weymouth, was the source of the obligatory abuse from the home gomerels. However, they were silenced after Wycombe were awarded a free-kick on 23 minutes following a foul on Joe Burnell. Easton stepped up to curl a Beckham style effort into the top corner but Wanderers 500 strong following in the 7,000 plus gate had just two minutes to enjoy the lead before Lee Johnson, son of Yeovil boss Gary, fired in his wonder shot from just to the left of midfield.
Half-time 1-1
Gus Uhlenbeek rises to the challenge at Huish Park The second half proved to be a different affair with Wycombe holding on for the majority of play. Darren Way angled a shot wide from the right three minutes after the restart, while a minute later Talia saved a shot from a similar position from Lee Johnson.
At the other end Wycombe lacked any power or conviction going forward and Matt Bloomfield's hit and hope 40 yard effort on 51 minutes was just a minor break to the wave of attacks from the home side.
Kevin Gall fired into the side netting on 56 minutes leaving Yeovil fans on the other side of the ground thinking they had scored. Talia saved from Kevin Amankwaah just before the hour mark and on 67 minutes pulled off the save of the match when he somehow stretched out an arm to push away Phil Jevons' header after Gall had crossed from the right.
Wycombe only looked like breaking the pattern of the game when Ian Stonebridge replaced a tiring Easton and Mark Philo came on for Keith Ryan who looked to be nursing a groin injury as he left the pitch. It was a Robert Lee pass on 79 minutes that found Philo on the right channel that led to Wanderers late rally. Philo cut in before seeing his shot deflected over for a corner on the right.
Trachulsk should have scored on 86 minutes but it was Nathan Tyson who had two clear chances to have won the game for Wycombe in the dying minutes. First on 88 minutes he burst across to the right of goal but delayed too long with a shot or cross and ended up becoming tangled with a defender on the bye-line. Then in the only minute of stoppage time he was almost celebrating before he saw his flicked header end wide of the target.
The result leaves Wycombe six points from the play-off zone with two games remaining, while Yeovil will be content that results elsewhere shifts them to the top of the table on goal difference. For The Glovers that certainly means 'League One' football for the first time next season while Wycombe can begin thinking of at least another year in the basement division.
Final Score - Yeovil 1 Wycombe 1
Speaking after the game to BBC Three Counties Radio John Gorman commented "It was an excellent game and a great advert for the League that we are in. We came with only one object - to win the game and play football. We knew it was going to be hard because Yeovil are a very good team and desperate to be top of the League and probably deservedly so because of the way they have played the whole year." The Wycombe boss thought his side matched Yeovil during the opening 45 minutes but admitted the second-half was a different matter, adding "We were a bit lucky on the second-half, we had to hang in there a few times but we never gave up the fight, we always kept going forward and we then created a number of good breakaways and their goalkeeper had to pull off some great saves as well."
Wycombe: Talia, Uhlenbeek, Easton (sub 68 Stonebridge), Williamson, Johnson, Bloomfield, Lee (sub 80 Dixon), Burnell, Ryan (sub 76 Philo), Claridge, Tyson - subs not used Cronin, Nethercott
Bookings: Lee (foul 46), Uhlenbeek (foul 53)
Scorers: Easton (23)
Yeovil: Collis, Amankwaah, Skiverton, Sodje, Rose (sub 31 Tarachulski), Johnson, Terry, Way, Gall (sub 72 Lindegaard), Jevons (sub 75 Stolcers), Davies - subs not used: Weale, Miles
Bookings: Amankwaah (foul 35), Tarachulski (foul 45)
Scorers: Johnson (25)
Referee: A Hall Attendance: 7,421 (458 away end)
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