We got to the ground just before 2pm, and asked if food was available in the ground and were told by the stewards yes, but that the food at the vans just outside the ground was better! And indeed it was.

Adams Park has grown since I was last there, the small stand to the left of the visitors end has grown into a big stand with executive boxes, probably not too dissimilar to what the Newmarket Road end will look like, if we ever get that far.

There was a minutes silence for the tragedy on the railway, which was respected by all fans.

We started in 4-4-2 formation, but it was quickly clear that Russell was not fully fit. Wycombe had the better of the opening minutes, Van Heusden having to save a low shot fairly easily on 4 minutes, a minute later Paterson (wearing number 29, but put as 26 in the programme) gave the ball away but the shot went wide.

On 10 minutes Eustace blocked the ball as a player ran at him, the ball fell kindly for the Wycombe player who passed through the gap to put a forward through on our goal, who then squared the ball past the advancing Van Heusden to Devine for an easy tap in for the opening goal.

We responded immediately, from a Chenery cross Taylor headed into the 'keepers arms. On 22 minutes we were awarded an indirect free kick just inside their presumably for dangerous play or obstruction. Butler blasted the ball but a defender got in the way to deflect the ball for a corner. After 27 minutes Russell was replaced by Benjamin and we reverted to 4-3-3, and not long after Benjamin had a chance but shot over.

Early in the second half we should have conceded another goal, but luckily their player headed over from 6 yards unchallenged, Wilson having to mark 2 players at once. A few minutes later Paterson again gave the ball away, but the forwards shot went past the far post. Butler tried a shot on the turn which was blocked for a corner, which came to nothing. Eustace got himself booked presumably for dissent after a fairly ordinary challenge, as was Wilson a little later, and Benjamin followed for a late tackle. 15 minutes from the end Cassidy and Byfield came on for Taylor and Chenery, with Ashbee moving to rightback.

And that was that. We huffed and puffed but did very little other than keep possession at the wrong end of the pitch. Wycombe are a poor team, but unfortunately we were worse.

The defence was not too bad, Van Heusden having a fairly easy game (not as easy as his opposite number though). Eustace seemed fired up verbally, at one point he was arguing (wrongly in my opinion) with Van Heusden that he should have come for the ball as Eustace headed away for a corner. The forwards rarely got the ball in a decent position, so Butler and Taylor were fairly anonymous. It was the midfield that seemed to be the problem, with Ashbee the only player having any idea of what to do. Wanless tried, but couldn't do much and is a similar player to Paterson, but Paterson is even slower and gives the ball away more often than not either by passing directly to one of their players, or an aimless ball into space without looking to see if there was a team-mate anywhere near. We must have a better midfield player available than Paterson, even one of the youth team players would at least show some enthusiasm.

We livened up a bit at 4-3-3, but Benjamin was unable to challenge for the ball without giving away a free kick. He was also unlucky when a Wycombe player slid into the back of him, but somehow the referee gave a free kick against him! I couldn't work that one out! (I didn't think the referee had a particularly good game, whenever we tried to take a free kick quickly he would call it back). The resigned mood of fellow visiting fans was lifted slightly by the result from Sweden, but the journey home was quiet as we listened to Lomu single handedly take the rugby result from England.

Another annoying thing was whenever Wycombe won a corner the loudspeakers would pound out a drum rhythm (a bit like an Indian (as in cowboys and) war chant) which was taken up by the crowd clapping. I didn't think that type of thing was allowed.

Also, anyone know why Wycombe are called the Chairboys? Is it because they are sponsored by an office furniture company?

Terry Wilby.
Proud Supporter of Cambridge United Football Club

If I was the manager of one of the teams out there on Saturday I would be extremely annoyed... Step forward Lawrie Sanchez, who must be wondering how his side only managed to beat United 1-0.

Don't get me wrong, Wycombe are a depressingly average side, something that in my wildest dreams and on the basis of what I've seen this season I can't see us becoming.

We reverted to 4-4-2, with the return of Alex Russell and the opportunity for me to get my first look at Clive Wilson. Wilson does look good and should certainly shore up the left side of the defence ... However, the central pairing of Duncan and Eustace didn't exactly inspire confidence during the game and Chenery, until he was substituted, had an absolute mare. Now, I've never exactly been his biggest fan, but his game seems to have gone to pieces.

Russell though patently wasn't fit, being nothing more than a passenger until he was replaced by Trev midway through the first half as United reverted to 4-3-3. However, this change of formation did little to improve matters. 2nd division defenders are not quite as gulable as their third division conterparts, and I'm not convinced that Trevor's crash-bang-wallop tactics are going to be that effective. If we are going to play 4-4-2, then I'd play Trevor as the target man ad Buts playing off him.

Wycombe had clearly done their homework and decided that attacking at pace or lofting a ball over the top was obviously going to reap dividends. It says much for Wycombe's finishing that apart from a couple of moments all Ice had to do was pick the ball out of the net.

As a sign of desperation, Roy had started with Shaggy instead of Byfield or Kyd. The introduction of Byfield and Cassidy for Taylor and Chenery, with Ash moving to right-back, did at least inject some much needed pace to our forward line, but it was a case of too little to late.

Only Wilson and Ashbee looked up to the rigours of the game. The centre of the defence is still a major problem and Wanless and Paterson in midfield are too slow. I know that Wanny would bleed Black and Amber, but as I've said before, in this division his lack of pace and technical ability have found him out. As for Paterson... why?

Buts ran his heart out first-half, but became more and more disillusioned as the game progressed. You only had to see how deep he was having to play to receive the ball that our midfield was just not working.

I can't fault work rate or effort from the players, but Saturday we were not up to the job. Worryingly, we looked short of confidence and given some of the heated arguments on the pitch, team spirit seems a little in short supply.

I'm not going to mention the dreaded "R" word, but I've seen enough this season to give me cause for concern. Already Friday's game is being targeted as a crucial 6-pointer, and we need to do something to kick start our season...

SteveJ

It's the same old story............. We went and we lost............. AGAIN.

As the teams were given out over the tannoy, the question, "Why has Roy dropped Trevor and Darren" was on a lot of peoples lips. I could only think that it was Roys way of giving them a kick up the arse.

After hearing about Wycombe's keeper dilemma I thought that surely luck must be on our side. This was their FOURTH choice keeper and still we only made a couple of chances against him. He looked very dodgy when he came out for a corner in the first half and clearly missed it, only for one of his players to clear the ball.

It was another game when we were not at the races. The only time the team seemed to show any form of interest was when 'Ice' and Eustace were arguing. Eustace seemed to think that Ice should of came out for a ball which was clearly for Eustace to get rid of. They were mouthing off at each other and it took Ashbee to separate them with a 'will you f***ing shut up'. I know our situation isn't looking good at the moment but if the players are going to start arguing like this, it isn't going to help.

We did have a couple of chances and there was a time in the game when our passing was good, but it's not enough. I know when the team have injuries and suspensions that you have to change players but we never seem to have the exact same team every week.

Butler never really got the ball in the right place and was always too wide and Taylor didn't really do a great deal at all, probably down to not getting the service. It is pretty sad when a newcomer to the team has 3 pretty off the mark shots because the strikers weren't doing it.

Before the game Ian had joked with Jon and said that he had put Patterson down to score in the Prediction League. Jon laughed and said 'If he does score I'll give you £100 myself'. Not quite so funny when the game started and Patterson was firing the ball from all over the pitch!!

Can I just end with - we play Colchester on Friday night and they are at the bottom of the table. They have only scored 8 goals and let in 21, this is a game that we HAVE to win to give ourselves that boost that we ALL need.

Rant over.

Julie

Here's what I thought of my day at Wycombe:

First of all I thought that our luck must be in today as I managed to drive around the M25 without any delays therefore getting to the ground at about 13:45 and managing to take one of the last parking spaces in one of estate areas. When I got into the ground I was fairly impressed by the new stadium, got a burger and sat down and listened to the line up. Taylor, Wilson and Russell were back in the team and it was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing Patterson play .....NOT !! Anyway, whilst we sat down and waited for the kick off we were treated to some of the oldest music I had heard for a long time at a football match, which did make us laugh and even cringe at times !!

The players were received on the pitch by some even worse music, which I can't remember now, and a fairly good following of Cambridge supporters (well I thought so, but not being a regular away supporter I can't really say if it was a good turn out or not). United won the toss and decided to swap ends and were quickly under pressure and conceded a goal which looked like a close call for offside, but too far away for the United supporters to see. Shortly after this Taylor had a good chance to put United level but headed it straight at their keeper, personally I thought he should had left it for Russell who was running onto the cross, but then again I'm not sure if Russell actually called for the ball.

In my opinion, Russell should not have even started the game, he didn't look motivated or even fit enough to play, which is probably why he came off in the middle of the first half. Benjamin seemed to give United a little bit of life but didn't really do anything to worry the keeper.

And that's about it for the whole game as far as United goes, Ice made a couple of good saves but the be all and end all was that we lost 1-0 and the game was one of the worse games I've seen for sometime, and the referee didn't help matters with his none stop whistling. Our defence did look a little bit more solid but I think this was because the midfield sat back deeper than than have done in previous games which is ok but they have also got to be able to support the front men as well, which they were not doing on Saturday.

As people have said Patterson and Wanless are similar players and Patterson did not impress me at all. He looked too big and slow, couldn't pass the ball and doesn't look committed which is the main difference between him and Wanless. Wanny seems totally committed and would sweat blood for United, Patterson looked as if he was out for a stroll. Lets hope he can change.

Here's how I rated our players:

Ice:      7 - Didn't do anything wrong but then again he didn't have
              a great deal to do
Wilson:   5 - Not his best game by far, seemed to be caught out of
              position a couple of times in the 2nd half
Eustace:  6 - Seemed strong and focused, but also looked slow and a
              tad over weight
Duncan:   6 - Better performance than of late but still looks too
              complacent
Chenery:  5 - Didn't look happy at all, defended ok but going forward
              was just NOT on
Paterson: 3 - Sat too deep, looked slow and clumsy. Must improve
Wanless:  6 - Committed as ever.
Ashbee:   8 - Again very committed and strong in everything he did
              My MOM
Russell:  3 - Didn't do anything right and IMO should not have started
Taylor:   6 - Okay, but didn't do anything special. Tried to get the
              team going but .......
Butler:   6 - Ran and tried hard but didn't get much service or much
              help from the midfield
 
Subs :
Benjamin: 7 - Seemed to want the ball more than Taylor or Butts, but
              the same applied to him as it did Butler
Cassidy:  4 - Didn't exactly do a lot. Gave the ball away a couple of
              times and didn't impress
Byfield:  5 - Again, didn't really do a lot

The biggest disappointment to me was that we did not put their keeper under any pressure whatsoever, one cross in the whole game and then nobody was even close to challenge him, and when I say not close I mean not within 15 yards !! And Wycombe are certainly nothing special but at the end of the day I suppose they deserved a win in a very poor game. And perhaps next time I go there, I might get held up on the M25 just so it changes the luck from me to the the U's !!!

Next Friday is a MASSIVE gave for the U's and I think we must must win it, and once we win this game I can see the players picking that little bit of confidence up which they need desperately

That's my ten pence worth

Richard Haslop

Wycombe enjoyed their third successive Division Two victory against a tough uncompromising Cambridge United thanks to Sean Devine's seventh goal of the season.

The home side went ahead on 11 minutes against a pedestrian U's defence after Jermaine McSporran created space on the right before easing David Carroll through, with visiting keeper Arjan Van Heusden scrambling Carroll laid the ball into the path of the Irishman who confidently passed his shot into the unguarded net.

Searching for their first away win of the season, the visitors quickly retaliated Wycombe rookie keeper Mark Osborn holding onto John Taylor's close range header, whilst minutes later substitute Trevor Benjamin drove a vicious effort inches over.

Home midfielder Keith Ryan should have increased the lead two minutes after the re-start heading softly into Van Heusden grateful arms from just six yards.

Despite the visitors enterprise Devine had a wonderful opportunity on 90 minutes to increase the lead only for Van Heusden to block with his feet.

Report © Soccernet