Wycombe Wanderers 2 v Charlton Athletic 1

Today we lost against Wycombe Wanderers for the first time ever in a league match.  Last week we played against Cheltenham Town for the first time ever in a league game, and lost.  This, despite a much-vaunted squad restructure and rebuild with investment from Thomas Sandgaard that should have seen us fighting for top spot after seven games, not joint bottom where we find ourselves.

The quality of football we have had to endure has been as poor as most of us can remember. Half-hearted, systemless, leaderless and clueless. Nigel Adkins has made some obvious mistakes as manager and managed to repeat them and we have only played seven games. He even made six changes from last week’s humiliation and after the initial twenty minutes of new-boy enthusiasm wore off, we quickly reverted to type and awaited the first goal which duly arrived. A second was always on the cards and it too came in the second-half, by which time Wycombe were on top and strolling. A late ten minute surge including added time saw us score and nearly snatch an equaliser which would have been licensed robbery and only prolonged our suffering under Nigel Adkins.

Thomas Sandgaard needs to act now to end this and give ourselves a chance with a new manager to make the most of the squad that has been assembled. I also think he needs to acknowledge his mistake in a late recruitment strategy that hamstrung our start and has yet to see us find a settled side or even formation. We also need some honesty around who has been responsible for that. The finger of suspicion points at Ged Roddy at the moment.

Seven games is far too few to be kicking your manager out under normal circumstances but these are far from normal. We have been reduced to a League One club under Duchatelet and simply have to get out of this division if we are to have a long term future. Thomas Sandgaard knows that and his five year plan for the Premier League cannot start Year 3 in League One. We simply have to take a chance – it has to be a better risk than continuing to suffer what we have seen so far this season.

We started more brightly today with Arter and Dobson showing early in midfield and Lavelle standing up alongside Pearce in the backline. Gunter was back on the correct side of the pitch for a change but he wasn’t getting forward. Soare tried unconvincingly but too often we had to retreat because we couldn’t hold the ball. Leko tried his best but had to come looking for the ball, as did Stockley. No surprise that they spent most of their game back to goal, thirty yards out with a full line of defence behind them.

Conversely, when Wycombe came forward, they were allowed time on the ball until support arrived and we suffered cross after cross. Standing off enabled the impressive McLeary to find a yard and slam a shot across our box and beat MacGillivray at the far post. His second was embarrassingly easy as Obita left unmarked at the far post managed to head back to him unmarked at the near from where he had a choice of how to score.

Five yellow cards that we picked up were all the result of lazy or frustrated tackles because our players weren’t where they should have been or had failed to do their jobs properly. Adkins might have been desperately unlucky but he appears disinterested and his football has been nowhere near good enough and he has to go. 

If he is still in charge on Tuesday night, I fully expect Gillingham to beat us and add to the ongoing humiliation.