Wycombe 1 Swansea 0

There are some games that you wish you had not turned up for and this was one of them. That fact probably wasn’t helped by the harsh reality that Swansea City didn’t turn up for it either.

The LDV Vans Trophy may be a pretty meaningless competition to many and exiting the competition is not the end of the world but the manner of this exit will worry me with the way that we just simply did not compete for the 90 minutes.

It’s a rare occurrence these days that I get to take in an away game and work commitments meant that this was one of those occasions, it’s just a shame that at this moment in time I wish that I had been working somewhere else.

Swansea lined up with the pretty familiar 4-4-2 formation with Alan Tate back in the starting line up as was Brad Maylett whose hernia operation clearly wasn’t as pressing as it was a week or so ago.

Gueret

Ricketts Monk Tate Austin

Forbes Martinez O’Leary Maylett

Trundle Connor

Subs: Nugent, Britton, Fisken, Britton, Iriekpen

Swansea were behind within the first ten minutes as slack defending at the back gave Wycombe the chance to open the scoring before we had even got off the blocks. Luckily for Wycombe we remained on those blocks for the first 90 minutes with what appeared to be a lack of direction, ability or effort. Or maybe all three.

Trundle had our best chance of the game with one of his trademark turns which appeared to be knocked away by the keeper for the corner which wasn’t given. Wycombe played the ball around in space in the middle of the park – space which we didn’t want to play in or more to the point didn’t seem able to find to play in as the hosts controlled the game from start to finish with the odd scattering of play from Swansea – all of it to no avail.

The game passed without any excitement for the travelling support of over 100 – all who had been fleeced for at least £10 to watch a game that attracted a crowd of 1000. How Wycombe can justify the pricing structure for such a game is beyond me and it was backed up by the lack of support within the ground itself.

Swansea’s game plan was left on the chalkboard in the dressing room as the second half resorted back to the opening days of the season and long hopeful balls aimed at the head of Paul Connor or Kevin Nugent once he had come on to replace Connor early in the second half.

There was a welcome return to action for Izzy Iriekpen in the second half as a replacement for Alan Tate but on the evidence of this evening risking him on Saturday against Bristol Rovers would be a mistake – he clearly is not fully fit at this moment in time.

Leon Britton was introduced for the ineffective Brad Maylett but it could have been anyone who was taken off to make way for the little man such was the nature of the Swans performance of the evening.

Whether we had made a conscious decision that this game didn’t matter I don’t know but had we done so then surely tonight was the time to use some of the younger members of the squad of even the inventive chance to give Gary Fisken a game – something that a player who has become the club’s permanent bench warmer would have relished?

There really was this little action to describe in a game that was mediocre at best – dreadful for the most part. Had this been a league game you would have easily argued that you were watching two sides battling out a bottom of the table encounter not two sides tipped for promotion. Of course, league football is different and it would be immediately wrong to assume that we will see the same lack of apparent effort in Saturday’s clash against Rovers.

That aside, we did look nothing better than a poor to ordinary side this season which begs the question to everyone as to where our real level is.

The LDV Vans Trophy slips away for yet another season and the real stuff matters again from now on in but from my hotel room not far from Wycombe, I really do wish I had stayed to watch the Champions League this evening.

I really won’t insult my intelligence by awarding a man of the match award for this particular game – suffice to say that if I did make a decision it would be subject to question under the trades description act

YAWN!