Wycombe..You’ve Been Jaboed!

Wycombe produced an astonishing fight-back late in the second half at Edgeley Park today, but it was not enough to gain anything against a very strong attacking County side.

Goals from George Donnelly (twice), Richie Partridge, and Jemal Johnson put County into a comfortable 4-0 lead, and we looked to have only our second home win of the season wrapped up.

But young Matt Phillips struck twice in four minutes for Wanderers, and Owain fon Williams deflected a shot into his own net four minutes from time to give Wycombe sight of a real shock result. Well, from 4-0 down anyway.

County started brightly attacking the Railway End, and George Donnelly could have given us the lead when he eased past the Wycombe defence and found himself one-on-one with ‘keeper Tom Heaton, but his shot was tame and Heaton grasped the ball.

Jabo Ibehre, who terrorised the Chairboys defence all game and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet himself, should have then put us ahead when he dribbled past Alan Bennett but poked his effort wide of the mark.

The 3700 County fans could have been forgiven for thinking this was another County home game where we dominate possession and chances and then fall behind, but not this time.

Richie Partridge lurked at the edge of the box for a Jemal Johnson corner, and when the loose ball bobbled back to the little number 5, he lashed it home into Heaton’s bottom corner.

Just as County fans were sitting down, Jemal Johnson’s rasping 30 yard effort was tipped over by Heaton, and the resulting corner from the American again wielded a goal.

The ball was caught in a scramble again, and this time it bounced back to Donnelly who fired home on the turn. Carbon copy of the first, 2-0.

Half-time came, and most fans were talking about the performance of Jabo leading the line up front superbly. He looks a very, very good striker and it’s a shame that Gary Ablett won’t be able to heed the Cheadle End’s advice and ‘sign him up.’

Wycombe came out fighting in the second half, but after a short spell of pressure came to nothing, Jemal Johnson received a chest-down from Ibehre, and ran at the full-back before cutting inside and absolutely spanking the ball past Heaton for 3-0.

Ibehre was once again involved for the fourth on the terrible playing surface. He raced to win the ball from Bennett before getting to the byline and rolling the ball back to Donnelly, who was rushing in to crash home his second.

It should have been a stroll in the park from the on, that goes without saying. But something went wrong in the County mind-set and Wycombe went on the offensive.

Phillips grabbed his first when he volleyed in from substitute Matt Harrold’s centre. And barely two minutes later, Phillips was left unmarked to head in at the near post from a corner.

County were soaking up a lot of pressure, and in the 85th minute fon Williams, who had been solid all game, once again made a mistake as he crashed into Paul Huntington and laid the defender out for the count, and Harrold’s cross-shot was deflected in off the Welsh keeper.

Squeaky bum time.

Not helped, of course, by the SEVEN minutes the referee saw fit to add on at the end of the 90.

But, in between a few corners and missed sitters, nothing to worry about really…HA!

So, it’s three points closer to 23rd place. 9 points from safety. Two games in hand. We couldn’t, could we…?

David Perkins collected his sponsors Man Of The Match award as Gary Ablett and the team applauded the still-stunned County fans, and I’ve only got one more thing to say…

Wycombe, you’ve been Jaboed.