REPORT: Cheltenham Town 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Wycombe Wanderers ran out 1-0 winners in a backs-to-the-wall performance against an unlucky Cheltenham Town on a chilly evening at The LCI Rail Stadium.Top scorer Scott Kashket gave Wycombe an early lead and it stayed that way until half time, even though there was little to separate the two sides.
The Robins put in a much improved second half performance and were unfortunate not to grab an equaliser after carving out plenty of chances.
In the end it was the away side who came away victorious though, with Gary Johnson’s men now moving on to Monday’s game against Colchester.
It took nine minutes for Wycombe to take the lead as Adebayo Akinfenwa controlled a long ball on the edge of the box and gave it to Kashket, who hit a fantastic low volley into the bottom right corner of Russell Griffiths’ net.
After the goal it was Cheltenham who were pressing for an equaliser - and it almost came when Billy Waters turned inside the box and unleashed a shot, but it flew just wide and into the side netting.
The Robins were putting a lot of pressure on the Wycombe defence with a series of corners and dangerous free kicks, but clear chances were something of a rarity and the it remained 1-0 to the away side at the break.
The second half picked up from where the opening period finished, as Cheltenham tried to attack Wycombe but were struggling to have any real efforts on goal.
Just after the hour mark the game came to life though, as Kashket tried his luck from outside the box again but his effort was comfortably saved by Griffiths.
Soon after it was Dan Holman’s turn to have a go at goal, but he slipped as he let fly from range and his shot went just wide.
Harry Pell then started and almost finished a good passing move as Cheltenham looked to find that all important goal with time running out.
On 78 minutes The Robins carved out two good chances as first Amari Morgan-Smith and then Holman both forced Scott Brown into action to keep Wycombe ahead.
Then in added time Rob Dickie had a go from range that was spilled by Brown, and Jack Barthram should have done much better with the rebound when the goal was gaping.
Cheltenham Town: R Griffiths, A Downes (C) (J Barthram, 71), D O’Shaughnessy, R Dickie, J Cranston, K Storer (J Dayton, 45), H Pell, J Rowe, B Waters, D Holman, D Wright (A Morgan-Smith, 70).
Unused Subs: C Kitscha, D Parslow, J Munns, K Arthur.
Wycombe Wanderers: S Brown, A Stewart, A Pierre, S Jombati, J Jacobson, D Gape, L O’Nien, M Bloomfield (S Wood, 88), P Cowan-Hall (G Thompson, 66), S Kashket (M Weston, 70), A Akinfenwa.
Unused Subs: B Richardson, M Bean, D Rowe, W De Havilland.
Attendance: 3761 (871)