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Wanderers remain unbeaten in 'League Two' but had to settle for a point
after coming from a goal down to draw 1-1 with a Boston United side reduced to ten men in first half stoppage time. United had taken a 21st minute lead when Francis Green was allowed to meander through from the right channel before stabbing the ball home from around 12 yards past Frank Talia. It was Pilgrims skipper Stuart Talbot who saw red when he was dismissed for a second bookable offence and it prompted the visitors to adopt extreme defensive tactics for the remainder of the game. Wanderers attacked at will but Tommy Mooney, Charlie Griffin and Danny Senda were all frustrated by last ditch defending, great goalkeeping and the woodwork before Matt Bloomfield finally managed to equalise in the 71st minute when he picked his spot through a crowd of players after the ball was worked in from the right. Substitutes Sergio Torres and Jonny Dixon (twice) then went close to snatching a dramatic victory. Wycombe remain top of the table but are now only a point in front of Grimsby Town.With Everton loanee 'keeper Iain Turner recalled by his club on Monday, John Gorman returned Frank Talia between the sticks for the match with the Lincolnshire side. Talia was the only change to the Wycombe side that had beaten Carlisle United ten days previous. Prior to the game much was made of the fact that while Wycombe had been out of match action since the trip to Brunton Park, the visitors had played just over 48 hours earlier in a FA Cup with Doncaster Rovers. Any bearing on the this match was difficult to assess in what turned out to be scrappy encounter. Wanderers struggled to get into their normal flow during the opening stages but could have been a goal up on 13 minutes when Danny Senda's cross from deep on the right was headed straight at the 'keeper by Griffin. Meanwhile, the visitors looked relatively dangerous on the break but it was a Wycombe error that led to their goal on 21 minutes. Rob Lee was caught in possession by Green following a throw-in by the Wanderers from around the half-way line. The United striker took advantage by running into the Wycombe box before knocking the ball into the opposite corner of the Valley End net. As the half progressed Wycombe became more frustrated as free-kicks in quick succession by Bloomfield and Rob Lee couldn't breach the Boston wall. The best chance to equalise came two minutes before the break when Mooney took the ball to the left of Michel Kuipers in the Boston goal, but the Brighton loanee turned the shot away for a corner. Talbot's sending off in first half stoppage time came after a wild challenge on Joe Burnell. The Boston skipper had been booked earlier in the half for dissent and with referee Steve Dorr producing another yellow, he was sent packing down the tunnel much to the anger of the Boston management. The second-half was probably one of the most one sided games seen at Adams Park. Yet Wycombe were foiled time and time again as Boston defended in numbers. However, most people in the ground thought Wycombe had equalised on 57 minutes when Senda's chipped cross from the right bye-line was sent goalbound at the far post by the head of Griffin. Some were already celebrating the goal when Kuipers managed to stick out a hand to push the ball away. Senda almost scored himself on 67 minutes when his curling cross from the right skimmed off the face of the crossbar and post. The equaliser finally arrived on 71 minutes when Betsy played neat one-two with Mooney on the right of the penalty area before laying ball square to Bloomfield who did well to find the back of the net from 18 yards. Wycombe were now hungry for the all three points and had chances to get them. Mooney powered a header wide of the right hand post on 78 minutes after Kevin Betsy had delivered. Jonny Dixon was sent on with seven minutes remaining and had two good chances to hit the headlines. First on the stroke of 90 minutes he chipped a shot over from the right channel and then after the referee had played five minutes of stoppage time, the former Youth Teamer slid in to send Mooney's low ball to the far post over the bar from just a couple of yards out. Final Score - Wycombe 1 Boston United 1 Wycombe Manager John Gorman admitted to being frustrated with the outcome of the game when speaking to the media after the game, "I'm not disappointed and I'm not happy - I think 'frustrated' is the word because it games like this that are the hardest and Boston were really up for it tonight." He added, "They rattled us and got at us and the conditions were pretty wet which worked for them because we went backwards instead of forwards on occasions. We tried to play football in the wrong areas early on and I don't want them to do that but sometimes you've got to allow the players to do things because we've become a good team." Meanwhile, Boston United Manager Steve Evans was critical of the referee, claiming that the sending off had cost them victory. He told BBC Radio Lincolnshire, "The first twenty minutes Wycombe couldn't get near us and there was only one team in the game to be fair. I think we pressed them, we had a couple of half chances and got a good goal and until the sending off, apart from long range efforts and the odd cross into the box, Wycombe haven't caused us a problem." He added "We would have taken a point on the way down here but in the game after 20 minutes you are looking at a three point victory, possibly a 2-0 or 3-0 victory. We were that much better than them. Granted second half we are down to ten and we've got to do a lot of defending, they got a lot of space and they looked like Real Madrid. But you've got to question how many clear cut chances they had. Probably the only one was where the referee adds five minutes on - where he gets five minutes from, we don't know but after seven and half minutes the boy hits it over the bar. We are disappointed with that but as I said, the referee (Steve Dorr) is normally very good and I'm not going to criticise him."
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