Gareth Ainsworth happy for his Wycombe side to entertain

Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2018 by PA

Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth is happy for his side to go on being the great entertainers in Sky Bet League Two following their dramatic 3-2 victory over Swindon.

Adebayo Akinfenwa’s 89th-minute header settled what was a wonderful game at Adams Park that kept the Chairboys third in the table and opened up a five-point gap between themselves and the sixth-placed Robins.

Ainsworth said: “If we score one more than the opposition the clean sheets aren’t that important.

“We set out to address the goalscoring problem of two years ago and I think we can safely say that we’ve done that.

“It was fantastic again, it’s a great win against a really good Swindon side.

“It was a good game for the forwards and for the goalscorers today and what a fantastic free-kick by Matty Taylor, one of the best free-kicks I’ve ever seen live, let alone down here.

“I thought we probably just edged it on chances and I can’t see anything wrong at all with Akinfenwa’s diving header ‘goal’.

“I don’t know why the referee has disallowed that, but I’m really pleased that he had another chance to put that right.

“The cross in from Dominic Gape was superb and if you want anyone heading that ball, it’s the best header in maybe the Football League.”

Marc Richards’ rebound opened the scoring for Swindon in the second minute, but this was immediately cancelled out by a fine strike from outside the box by Luke O’Nien.

Wycombe then led after 10 minutes when Paris Cowan-Hall squared for Craig Mackail-Smith before Taylor equalised for the Robins with a sensational free-kick from over 30 yards.

The last word went to Akinfenwa, who beat Swindon goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook to Gape’s cross and headed in via the underside of the crossbar.

Swindon manager David Flitcroft said: “When you are part of a game where you’re 2-1 down and then Matty Taylor steps up and scores an absolutely outstanding goal, that you don’t really see at League Two and League One level, that’s the energy you should then thrive off.

“I’ve said to the players that under no circumstances then, at that point, with the energy back with them, should they concede.

“They should respect the point – it’s a hard-earned point – and they didn’t.

“We gave them a couple of opportunities to throw the ball into the box and we’ve conceded a late goal, but you don’t get a better opportunity to go and come back in a game with a goal like that.

“That should have given us an adrenaline pump, it lifted everyone and it’s a goal that certainly meant Matty Taylor didn’t deserve to be on the losing team tonight.

“We’ve got no points from tonight’s work.”