Frustration: Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 Imps

March 31, 2025 Kyle Fox League One, Lincoln City, Matches, Opinion, Post Match Reaction, Referee, Reports, Wycombe 0

City then started the second half well. Paudie had a header early on which missed the target but showed good intent. Then, on 51 minutes, our best chance came from our best passage of play. A succession of bad clearances lead to the ball dropping down to Tendayi who in turn fired a lovely half volley pass across the pitch toward Ring. He cleverly dropped his shoulder after pretending to go to the ball, leaving it for House who laid it back in to Ring’s path. He then ran at Sonny Bradley and turned him beautifully sending him to the ground on the edge of his area, allowing him to get a shot off. Unfortunately, his shot was tame and went straight at Will Norris. However, it was a lovely move and a really good moment nonetheless for Ring who showed some clever and skillful play there that we can hopefully see more of in the future. Speaking of Darikwa, he continued his form of really good performances as he produced another one and I would say he was our standout player at Adams Park.

After this point is when the game started to go downhill a little bit for the Imps as we struggled to create anything and Wycombe grew back in to the game as the half went on. A few minutes after Ring’s chance, Wycombe were claiming for a penalty following a free kick in to the box which caused a collision between Wickens and Chairboys centre half Taylor. The Wycombe man jumped the highest causing the ball to bounce off the top of his head. Wickens missed with his attempted punch which ended up towards the face of Taylor causing him to go down and spark penalty appeals from Wycombe players and fans. However, for me there’s not enough in that for a penalty, Wickens doesn’t even look at the player, he’s only looking at the ball and there’s minimal contact. A penalty would have been harsh.

Then came the winning goal, and unfortunately it’s another really frustrating one as it’s from another individual mistake. Leahy plays a bit of a hopeful long ball forward from a left back position and at first it looks easy for Roughan to clear, but he overcommits slightly before the ball has bounced which caused it to bounce all the way over him. Humphreys is then able to pounce and latch on to the ball where it landed as Roughan falls over trying to chase back, he then finishes really nicely by letting Wickens commit and taking the ball round him and slotting the ball in to an empty net whilst avoiding Hamer who was sliding it as a last ditch attempt to block the shot. Sean Roughan was yet again having a good game up that point too and has been such  standout performer all season which just makes it worse with Michael Skubala saying he was ‘distraught’ in the dressing room post match.

Wycombe had a couple more chances after this as Taylor had a half volley effort on goal saved as did Kone after he went one on one with Wickens attempting to finish on his weaker left side. Both efforts going straight at the keeper.

Back to the referee briefly as I mentioned earlier. He was ok in the first half but some of his decisions in the second half were questionable at best. Constant 50/50 fouls that would go Wycombe’s way, some weren’t even 50/50. Not penalising a blatant handball from a Wycombe player after booking Makama for the same offence earlier in the match. A lot of pulling and shirt tugging that he wasn’t picking up on. Another frustrating aspect.

Speaking of the referee, the other big incident in the game was the red card one against captain Paudie O’Connor. The ball is launched forward by Wickens as we search for an equaliser and is flicked on by Ben House but it has too much on it and is heading out of play. O’Connor is up against Low fighting to get the ball back to keep it in play and during that he swings a leg across him to try and keep the ball in play. I truly believe that’s what he was doing there. It is never a red card for me, a yellow for sure but not a red. There is no need to send him off for that challenge. We shall have to wait and see in terms of an appeal but even if we do file one I don’t believe it will be overturned. Much like the Joe Gardner situation previously.

Saturday’s game probably gave a quite accurate representation of our status as a league one team and our quality. We are a good side that most of the time is hard to beat but maybe lack a bit of quality that the money floating around the league this season gets you. We also make mistakes more often than the teams above us do. But, the possibility of less money being spent next season gives us a greater chance of being able to push on from where we will finish this season. Also, it’s easy to forget that if Shrewsbury and Burton go down we will be the longest serving team in the division.

On to Tuesday night under the lights against the Terriers.

Up the Imps!

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