There were three players coming into the side from the weekends game as keeper Mikkel Andersen, captain Stuart Campbell and striker John Akinde returned to the side. Charlie Reece was set to once again start on the right hand side of midfield but a back injury in the warm up forced Paul Trollope into a pre-match replacement, Wayne Brown taking the youngsters place. Wycombe made a large number of changes from their win over Hayes & Yeading which included dropping top scorer and ex-Rovers player Andy Sandell.
The match stats on the BBC website show that nine goals were scored from seven shots on target, penalties not included, while Wayne Brown hit the Wycombe woodwork on two occasions. This will be heartwarming for Bristol Rovers who have found it difficult to convert more chances than their opponents in recent games, not winning in four previous attempts. It is also comforting that these six goals were scored without the assistance of top scorer Will Hoskins who, it has been confirmed, will be out for 4-6 weeks with a badly sprained ankle.
The result and the manner of the performance will relieve some of the pressure on the Rovers manager but fans will want this brand of football to continue into the next match with Leyton Orient on Saturday before Rovers face a tricky spell of fixtures that include away games at Brighton, Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday as well as a home game against high fliers Bournemouth.
The manager was pleased with his sides performance as he told bristolrovers.co.uk:
"We played some very, very, good football in the two games prior to coming here, and got nothing.
"We tried to be a little bit more penetrative tonight, and a little bit more progressive in our play, and get the front two in the game in different ways and it worked.
"We came here to win the tie, and we managed that. There were some good individual performances out there, a good spirit, and a very good attitude after the disappointment of Saturday.
"It was a positive performance, full of spirit and endeavour, and that's the base requirement for a team to be successful and win games. We tried to put a little bit more tempo in our play to et a little bit more of a cutting edge and I think we got that, as we scored six and could probably have had a few more."
Wycombe manager Gary Waddock tried to take the positives from his sides attacking performance, but admitted that defensively they weren't good enough, he spoke to BBC Three Counties Radio after the game:
"Defensively it wasn't our best performance. With the attacking threat they've got, opportunities came and they took them.
"It's an incredible scoreline, it just goes to show we can score goals.
"But it shows that defensively tonight we weren't good enough as individuals and as a unit."
The other three sides through to the southern section semis are Brentford, Charlton and Exeter. Rovers will hope to avoid the Addicks if they are to have a chance to reach the southern area final which will be a two-legged affair before the chance to reach Wembley and face the winners of the northern section of the draw. Soccer AM presenters Helen Chaimberlain and Max Rushden will make the draw for the next round this coming Saturday while the area semi finals will take place over the 30th of November and 1st of December.
In other Rovers related news winger Mark Wright, currently out on loan at Shrewsbury Town, has been rumoured to return in a recall, however, he has denied this on social networking site Twitter, telling numerous fans that he is enjoying his time with the Shrews.
The Gas can go into Saturdays game with Leyton Orient with a good level of confidence in their ability following the Wycombe result where they will hope to get back to winning ways in the league and start climbing back up the table.
No comments:
Post a Comment