Wycombe more than match Saints

Wycombe Wanderers more than matched Southampton at Adams Park this evening but had to be content with a single point when the game finished goalless.


The Chairboys followed up their fine win over Millwall on Saturday with another fully committed performance on a heavy pitch which forced both sides to frequently resort to the long ball.

For the first hour of the match, the Saints hardly had an attack worth mentioning, with the home side adapting better to the conditions and making most of the running.

As early as the first minute, Jon-Paul Pittman tested Kelvin Davis when he latched onto a Kevin McLeod lob and fired in a low shot which the Saints' keeper was equal to.

With full-back Julian Kelly and winger Kevin Betsy forming an exciting partnership on the right flank, the Blues continued to look the more threatening side, forcing a series of corners as they probed at the Saints' defences.

Dean Keates then broke from midfield and hit a stinging shot which Davis fumbled before gathering the ball at the second attempt.

If Davis was looking a little suspect at times in the Southampton goal, the same couldn't be said of Wycombe's Tom Heaton who had another excellent game. Showing some superb handling, Heaton kept his second clean sheet in three days, a luxury for a Wycombe side who had previously only kept two all season.

In a more evenly matched second half, Wycombe's best two efforts came from Pittman again.

Latching onto an excellent pass from Keates, JP's acrobatic first time volley was heading for the back of the net until Davis did his best work of the evening by turning the ball onto the crossbar.

Pittman then decided to take matters into his own hands by going on a solo run across the Saints' defence before firing a shot narrowly past the post.

Southampton's best chances fell to Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana but Heaton was equal to one and the other went wide. On tonight's performance, the play-offs look a step too far for them.

A haul of four points from the games against Millwall and Southampton is more than most people expected, and has certainly kept the Chairboys' survival hopes alive.

With their defence now vastly improved from earlier in the season, all they need now is someone to start finding the net, and of the current crop, Pittman looks the most likely candidate to do that.

Team
Heaton, Kelly, Bennett, Westwood, Woodman, Betsy, Mousinho, Keates, McLeod, Revell, Pittman.


Man Of The Match

Jon-Paul Pittman

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