Orient Sink Toothless Wycombe

Former Chairboy Scott McGleish provided Orient with the cutting edge Wycombe lacked and condemned his old club to another disappointing 1-0 defeat at Adams Park this afternoon.


Manager Peter Taylor made one change to the side that lost to Tranmere on Tuesday, with Matt Harrold coming in for Jon-Paul Pittman as the Chairboys took-up what was effectively a 4-5-1 formation as follows:

Shearer

Hunt (81) Duberry Oliver Woodman

Zebroski (71) Green (58) Pack Betsy Phillips

Harrold

Subs: Young Johnson Mousinho (58) Westlake Beavon (81) Chambers Pittman (71)



The O's started the match confidently, committing players forward and taking a couple of early shots on goal.

It was up to Wycombe to stem the tide, and to their credit, they did just that, soon forcing the O's to concentrate more on their defensive duties.

A reminder of Wycombe's frailty at set-pieces came after 20 minutes when an Orient corner found Ben Chorley unmarked in acres of space at the back-post and with all the time in the world to pick out a header to Tamika Mkandawire who could only shoot tamely into keeper Scott Shearer's waiting arms.

Half-hearted blocked shots and badly timed headers were all Wycombe had to offer at this stage, but the pendulum had swung in their favour and they looked the more likely side to score.

The Chairboys' two best chances of the half came towards the end.

Firstly, Michael Duberry rose at the far post to head Craig Woodman's cross over the bar from close range and then Stuart Green appeared to completely miss the ball when presented with a golden opportunity inside the Orient box.



Wycombe almost took the lead at the start of the second half when a Matt Harrold header took a wicked deflection and almost wrong-footed Orient keeper Jamie Jones who did well to recover and make a diving save.

Michael Duberry headed another effort wide of the post shortly afterwards. In fact he was making a real nuisance of himself from corners this afternoon, but despite managing to get his head to the ball on several occasions, he seemed unable to direct it with anything approaching accuracy.

A well struck Marlon Pack shot from 20 yards was blocked by the O's as Wycombe continued to probe in search of an elusive goal.

After 57 minutes the ineffective Stuart Green was replaced and John Mousinho entered the fray.

Shortly afterwards Wycombe had a lucky escape when Scott McGleish stole into the box to meet a cross from the left flank, only to put his head in his hands after flicking his first time shot wide of the post when he felt he should have scored

The O's were coming back into the game now with Scott Shearer doing well to save a Ryan Jarvis effort, before the tricky Andros Townsend weaved his way across the face of the Wycombe penalty area only to fire his shot over the crossbar.

Chris Zebroski was substituted after 71 minutes in favour of Jon-Paul Pittman who joined Matt Harrold up-front with Kevin Betsy moving to the right-wing as the Chairboys switched to a 4-4-2 formation.

The only goal of the game came after 76 minutes when McGleish bravely threw himself forward to beat Luke Oliver to the ball and send a diving header into the net from Adrian Patuela's cross.

Stuart Beavon replaced Lewis Hunt with Mousinho moving to right back and the Blues did all they could to force an equaliser but despite a flurry of corners and a goal-line clearance by the O's, it wasn't to be.


Opinion

There won't be many games this season when Wycombe have as much of the play as they enjoyed on Tuesday against Tranmere and again today against visitors Leyton Orient.

However, after failing to score a single goal on either occasion and losing both games at home to struggling sides, alarm bells should be ringing throughout Adams Park.

No one could accuse manager Peter Taylor of picking a defensive line-up for either match, and although many will question his preferred formations, it's beginning to look like Wycombe just don't have enough of a cutting edge to be able to compete in this division.

The Chairboys didn't deserve to lose this game and Orient only won it because they had a cool-headed predator in Scott McGleish, who was given two chances to score this afternoon and took one of them in style.

With no prolific goalscorers in the Wycombe squad and the manager's propensity to play one man alone up-front (if you don't count the wingers), it's hard to see us scoring enough goals to stay in this division.


Man Of The Match

Kevin Betsy

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