Aaron the hero as Chairboys get lucky
AARON Pierre’s lastgasp effort may have earned Wycombe their first away league win of the season, but boss Gareth Ainsworth wasn’t convinced his team deserved the three points.
After Wycombe goalkeeper Jamal Blackman made a string of fine saves in the second half, Cambridge looked to have claimed a point when George Maris struck three minutes from time.
But former U’s loanee Pierre lashed home in injury-time when the hosts failed to clear a corner.
“It’s been a long wait for our first away league win and if I’m honest we probably didn’t deserve it,” said Ainsworth.
“Cambridge really put the pressure on us in the second half but Jamal Blackman will go on to play in the Premier League one day.
“Anyone who disagrees with me only has to look at his performance there. He was outstanding.
“I thought we deserved our lead at half-time but they stretched us after break with [Uche] Ikpeazu up front, he's a handful.
“Then from the worst corner we put in Aaron Pierre and he scores the winner.”
Wycombe were in front in the sixth minute when Pierre went tumbling in the box under pressure from Mark Roberts.
Paul Hayes chipped a cool spot-kick down the middle.
Cambridge named a much-changed line-up following their cup tie with Dover on Thursday, which went to extra-time, and the U’s struggled to get going in the first half, not helped by some erratic decision-making from referee Trevor Kettle.
The introduction of Ikpeazu at the break gave the home side more cutting edge, and Blackman came to the fore with a brilliant double save to deny Roberts.
He was finally beaten when he could only parry Ikpeazu’s shot into the path of Maris, who fired in.
But Pierre pounced to win it at the death.
“It’s a cruel game sometimes, and we’ve experienced that,” said Cambridge manager Shaun Derry.
“I thought we played really well for the whole match, with some fantastic forward play. But we haven’t defended a set piece properly at the end and it cost us.
“I spoke to the referee and his team afterwards, because consistency of decisions was a problem all afternoon.
“We had to make some changes but we delivered a performance for the fans that we can all be proud of.
“It shows the quality we have in the group.”