Richard Dobson applauds Garath McCleary for his role in Wycombe’s winner

Posted Sunday, January 02, 2022 by PA

Wycombe assistant manager Richard Dobson praised Garath McCleary for the part he played in Sam Vokes’ goal as they won 1-0 at Charlton.

McCleary beat George Dobson near the byline before teeing up the striker to hammer home from a few yards out in the 35th minute for his seventh goal of the campaign.

Wycombe have not lost in the seven matches that Vokes has scored in this season, winning six of them.

Dobson, who took charge with boss Gareth Ainsworth isolating after a positive Covid-19 test, was quick to recognise McCleary’s contribution.

He said: “That’s what he brings to us – he’s got that little spark in the final third.

“There is a little bit of pace and trickery about him. He’s so important to how we play.

“It was that moment – because no-one else had produced that before that point, on either side. I’m delighted it was him who did it for us.”

The Chairboys moved four points off second-placed Sunderland in League One.

Dobson said: “Today was more like us. We can still be better on the ball at times, particularly first half. But the goal was a good move. Our shape defensively and the way we battled was outstanding.

“We’d spoken before and said transitions were going to be so important. We made ours work. Charlton score a lot of goals on transition – they’re a quick counter-attacking team, but we knew there would be space with all their attacking players.”

It ended Charlton’s three-game winning streak in the league at The Valley as Johnnie Jackson suffered a second successive loss since he was appointed permanent manager.

“I’m disappointed – I didn’t feel there was a lot in the game at all,” said Jackson, who was missing top-scorer Jayden Stockley due to a hip injury.

“In the second half we were probably the team in the ascendency but they have got a lead to cling to, that makes it difficult.

“For the majority of the match we stood up to their threats, which they have got a lot of, but we just came unstuck in that little moment before half-time. A little bit of quality from McCleary makes the difference and they get a goal when there is nothing in the game.

“They are clever at defending a lead, they do it well. They use their experience – they are a group who have been together a long time now. You have to find ways to break them down and we didn’t do enough in those moments we did create.

“It’s about that individual quality of the cross, the shot or your runs. You want to give your creative players license there to come alive and show a bit of magic to win us the game – we didn’t manage to create that today.

“We were knocking on the door in the second half. I thought we’d go and get one but every time we did build some momentum they managed to put a stop to that.”