Blues start with 3-0 win at Chesham

Wycombe Wanderers beat Chesham United 3-0 this evening in the first of their nine scheduled pre-season friendlies.

The Chairboys lined up as follows. (* denotes trialist)

First half.

Arnold

Foster Phillips* Johnson Sansara*

Ainsworth Green Bloomfield Harris (Federico 30)

Strevens Pittman


Second Half

Arnold

McCoy* Winfield Westwood Westlake

Federico (Belcher 62) Montrose Murtagh Betsy

Rendell Fitchett (McClure 72)


Chesham gave as good as they got for the first half-hour and would have taken the lead as early as the second minute but for Leon Johnson's superbly timed interception which stopped a certain goal after the hosts had carved the Wycombe defence apart far too easily and Steve Wales had rounded Blues' keeper Steve Arnold.

As the match progressed, Wycombe picked up the pace and began to impose themselves on the game, finally reaping their reward with two goals shortly before half-time.

The Blues' first goal after 40 minutes appeared to be scored by Ben Strevens, whose firm header from a Stuart Green corner gave the Chesham keeper no chance.

The stadium announcer gave the goal to trialist Mark Phillips but it looked like Strevens to me, and he was certainly the player being congratulated by his teammates as they made their way back for the restart.

Just three minutes later the Blues were two up when Jon-Paul Pittman bundled home a cross from left-back Netan Sansara who had looked good going forward throughout the first half and was the pick of the three trialists on show in my book.

Despite the second forty-five minutes being played almost entirely in Chesham's half of the pitch, it took until the 85th minute for Wycombe to increase their lead courtesy of a cheeky lob over the keeper from promising new signing Keiran Murtagh - who had earlier wasted the best chance of the half when put clean through with only the keeper to beat.

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening's football with the five new signings on show, Foster, Winfield, Murtagh, Strevens and Rendell all getting off to a steady start in the famous Blue Quarters.

Other performances of note were the twin threat of Sansara and Federico on the left flank in the first half and Ian Westlake's impressive display at left-back in the second half.


Wycombe's next game is at Hayes & Yeading on Saturday 17th July - kick off 3.00pm

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