I was in the Bescot Stadium last Saturday
watching Walsall grab a draw against Huddersfield and, at the same time, had an eye on developments at Adams Park. It was a strange afternoon.
At one point I thought that the Chairboys
were going to take the relegation battle to the final game, while the Saddlers
looked to be heading for their third straight defeat and some major last day
nerve jangling.
I have no loyalty as a fan to either team,
although when you see them on a fairly regular basis and get to know the
players and managers as 'people', you do tend to develop a bit of a soft spot.
I guess that it was always going to be
the case that one side or other would be relegated though and so it turned out for
Gary Waddock’s team.
So what now for Waddock and Wycombe?
Fans can often be fickle and no doubt there
will be some in Bucks who want to see a managerial change, but if it was down
to me, I would do everything in my power to keep hold of Waddock.
To be fair to the Wycombe faithful, they
aren’t as ‘knee-jerk’ as fans of many clubs and I suspect that the promotion
earned last season is still fresh enough in the memory for them to stick by
their man.
From the first kick of the ball last August
Wycombe were always going to be up against it, but in the end they weren’t too
far off survival. Waddock will have learned a lot about both himself and the
players from this experience and he’s the sort of measured guy who will put
those lessons to good use next season.
Gary’s biggest task will be coping with the
loss of Stuart Beavon who, I suspect - like any player who is capable of scoring
25 goals in a struggling team - will have caught the eye of a few scouts.
But as usual at this time of year, numerous
changes will be made and so we won’t really get a good idea of who is staying
and leaving until pre-season starts.
League Two will be an interesting division
next season with a number of decent teams in it expecting to be pushing for
promotion.
Bristol Rovers had a horrendous start to
this campaign, but Mark McGhee seems to have the Gas finishing positively and
will hope that form carries over to the new term.
Oxford may yet squeak into the play-offs
and win promotion, but the odds are against them and most Us’ fans are resigned
to building on what they expect to be this season’s near miss.
Northampton have looked like contenders
since Adie Boothroyd’s arrival and at some point soon Bradford will take
advantage of their huge support - even
if the tickets are heavily discounted J.
If Plymouth has finally turned the corner
and can find some financial backing, it is a massive club with a very large
following that will take some stopping once it’s on a roll.
And assuming that Oxford don’t make the
play-offs, only two clubs from Crawley, Torquay, Southend, Cheltenham and Crewe
will go up. That leaves three other fairly decent teams for Wycombe to do
battle with.
So next season won’t be a stroll for the
Chairboys, but at least they have someone at the helm who has been there and
done it.
Oh, and a final nod to one of the Wycombe
‘good guys’. As many people may know, Matt Bloomfield writes a column for the BBC website
and his thoughts on relegation can be found here:
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