Wycombe Wanderers 0 Huddersfield Town 6

Wycombe boss Gary Waddock looked as crestfallen as I have ever seen him after this game and as Gareth Ainsworth pointed out to me as I was leaving: “He’s a decent man and he didn’t deserve that.”

Ainsworth also pointed out that the players needed to take a long hard look at themselves as the responsibility for this defeat was all theirs – and I agree.

I’m not taking anything away from Huddersfield as I don’t think many sides in League One could have coped with them on Friday night. They were on fire and – in Jordan Rhodes – they have the best striker I’ve seen in the bottom three divisions this season. Wingers Danny Ward and Gary Roberts in were outstanding and helped write the headlines for Rhodes.

A special mention should also go to defender Jack Hunt and Oscar Gobern (who scored the opener) and Lee Novak. Novak was Rhodes strike partner and worked his socks off unselfishly so that Rhodes could take the glory.

But as Wycombe are one of the teams I spend time writing about, my focus lies with them. How many Novak’s did they have in their team on Friday? The answer sadly is none.

I said before the game that the main focus for the club from Day One was to stay in the division. Ainsworth agreed.

The advantage they had was the fact that they knew this was going to be the case from the outset. While other relegation strugglers, come early April, may be shocked to find themselves in a scrap against the drop and might not be able to cope (remember Swindon and Bristol Rovers last season), Wycombe had all summer to prepare to roll up their sleeves and fight for their lives.

On Friday night there was very little fight to be seen and after the second goal went in, it really was a case of just basking in Rhodes’s reflected glory and being able to say “I was there the night ....”. While it’s okay for the people in the stands to take that attitude, the Wycombe players should have done more to ruin the young marksman’s night.

With luck, the Chairboys will take this as the massive slap in the face it was and hopefully Waddock, his coaches and senior players like Ainsworth will get their message across on the training ground.

Waddock has proved his credentials as a coach and Ainsworth as a player – it’s time for the rest of the Wycombe lads to step up and show that they can make it in League One or higher ... or accept that they are really only League Two quality at best.

My clipping from the paper