New boys get harsh lesson in defending

A FIRST-HALF defensive horror-show from Forest Green allowed Wycombe to ease to their first home win of the season, with visiting manager Mark Cooper disappointed with the manner his side conceded.

After being thrashed 5-1 at Colchester last week, the EFL new boys looked set to have another harsh lesson doled out to them at Adams Park.

Wycombe deserve some credit for their attacking play, but Rovers were so bad they were fortunate to be only three down at halftime, before they finally showed some resilience when it was too late.

Cooper said: “You can’t defend like that and give goals away like that and expect to win a game of football.

“The game’s gone at half-time. I said win the second half and we did, we competed well, but you can’t have experienced players giving goals away like that.

“We know exactly what their strength is: They’re going to whack the ball to [Adebayo] Akinfenwa and we’ve got to deal with it, but we didn’t.

“We’ve got some big lads back there, some experienced centrehalves and goalkeepers and we just didn’t deal with the aerial threat. Our plans went out the window after five minutes.”

Wycombe went ahead in the seventh minute when Akinfenwa knocked down a long ball and Paris Cowan-Hall swept past a static Sam Russell.

The Chairboys soon doubled their lead, with Anthony Stewart given too much time and space to fire into the bottom corner.

Rovers continued to bear gifts, as Liam Noble senselessly gave the ball away to Akinfenwa, who rumbled through on goal. Russell parried his shot but gave Luke O’Nien an easy tap-in.

Forest Green finally had something to cheer halfway through the second half when Christian Doidge nodded into an empty net after his initial header from Luke James’s cross struck the post.

Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth said: “In the first half we were exceptional going forward.

“We had a plan against Forest Green and that plan was executed superbly by the players.

“We knew what was coming – they’ve got some good footballers, they try to play out, but we were on the front foot.

“It was really good to see, good to watch and the confidence in the boys is thriving now.”