Gareth Ainsworth praises Wycombe as their winning run continues at Accrington

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by PA

Gareth Ainsworth praised his Wycombe side after they made it four successive wins with a 2-0 victory over relegation-threatened Accrington.

Josh Scowen blasted home an 18th-minute opener from the edge of the area before Garath McCleary settled the tie, slotting between Lukas Jensen’s legs in the 90th minute.

In between, Sean McConville had a goal ruled out for offside for Stanley who remain in the bottom four.

The win keeps the Chairboys in seventh place in League One, three points out of the play-off places.

“It’s a tough place to come, it was a tough night,” said Ainsworth. “We had a big win over Derby on Saturday, the effort and the emotion of that took a lot out of us.

“Accrington have a lot of good young prospects and, being from up north, it’s a club that means a lot to me but it’s nice to get the win.

“Josh hit it sweetly, he has that in his bag, and it was timely as it gave us the lead. It meant we could sit back and soak up the pressure but the goal that clinched it was Garath’s, that put the game to bed and settled the nerves for the final five minutes.

“We had to change the shape and bring on another defender as Accrington were attacking but I was proud of all the squad.

“Three games in a week is tough and I will give them Thursday off as well as we build up to another test against Bolton at the weekend.”

John Coleman was pleased his side created more chances than they have in previous games but knows they need wins if they are to avoid the bottom four.

“It was a marked improvement on our last home game (a defeat to Lincoln),” said Coleman. “I think anyone watching wouldn’t be able to tell who was the form side and who were in the relegation places.

“We gave as good as we got, they scored one good goal and one lucky goal and the game hinges on the goal which is ruled out for offside.

“Everyone around us lost so we didn’t lose any ground but, if we got what I thought we deserved from this game, we could have made up some ground.

“The positives are we created more chances and hopefully they will start dropping into the net. We snatched at them a bit and that’s what happens when you do not score a lot of goals but we have to keep going.”