[Phil Whalley]

One-shot Wycombe

Just back from the game, Stanley can count themselves unfortunate not to have come away with a point, they more than matched Wycombe.

Wycombe had just one notable shot on target, and that was the winner, and it came with just 10 minutes to go to leave Stanley with little time to find a response.

The game had a cautious start. The first worry was the speed of the right-sided Wycombe midfielder who easily had King for pace, but we came very close to scoring after ten minutes when a header was cleared off the line. Shortly after this, Mullin lofted a shot over the keeper from the edge of the box, and the Wycombe hordes were well and truly silenced.

And then Stanley soaked up the pressure with little bother. The save that is mentioned earlier in the thread was little more than a routine tip-over from Kenny after a blocked shot had ballooned into the air. What was frustrating, to put it mildly, was the tame way we surrendered what had been a hard-fought lead. They found space down the right and the cross was low and hard, but there was no-one around Murdock. He was probably trying to control the ball, but it just came off his boot and straight in. If he’d been down the other end you’d have been applauding his calmness in front of goal.

After that it became an issue of digging in and reasserting ourselves and we did this really well. I hope young Kissock isn’t injured as the reports say. It looked like cramp to us when he finally went off, but in the first half he did that patrolling thing where he would pick the ball up deep and look for the incisive pass. You could see the Premiership schooling in that he was reluctant to lose possession, often ending up playing the ball sideways or back. In the second-half, he played a more attacking role down the left and, obvious inexperience notwithstanding, did more than enough to justify his place.

We started the second period very brightly, with Kissock, Miles and Ryan combining well to move the ball left-wing to centre field and then back again. The thing we conspicuously lacked was the cutting edge up front, but the work-rate throughout the team was more than enough to counter any Wycombe threat. We were looking good for the point when a move down the right ended with a cross and a far post finish. Those around me were saying that Murdock had failed to go with his man, making it not the best of days for him.

The goal came just after we had brought off Higginbotham for Lindfield. Higginbotham looked lively but was deployed first on the right and then on the left when Kissock went off. It was a pity we couldn’t have found a way to use him more directly as his pace might have created more openings through the middle. As it was, we were now chasing the game but the final minutes were hugely frustrating as, for all out possession, we couldn’t manoeuvre a clear chance and failed to find Mullin with any of the high balls lofted into the box. The corner routine that brought the goal at Chesterfield was tried again, but this time Lindfield, obviously not aware of the set-piece, got in the way of what looked like a goal-bound effort.

I guess that it’s no disgrace to lose narrowly away to the league leaders, but it was galling to fall behind when we did after matching them throughout. I doubt Kenny has found himself so under-employed in the course of conceding twice and losing a game.

We must keep our nerve. Yes, we clearly need a skilful and pacy partner for Mullin, and a left-sided midfielder to match Ryan on the right (not wholly convinced about Jimmy in the centre). But I’ve seen us at Rochdale, Bradford and Wycombe in recent weeks and every time we have matched our opponents both in terms of work rate and of skill and possession. We just lack a cutting edge up front, and this has left us with just a point from these three games when a bit more sharpness would have seen us nick a couple of wins. But we are playing well, and that’s what keeps me hopeful that the team will begin to reap what their efforts deserve.

Have a good evening everyone

Phil