Matt Bloomfield beaming after claiming his first win as Wycombe boss

Posted Wednesday, March 08, 2023 by PA

Matt Bloomfield was a proud man after picking up his first win as Wycombe manager courtesy of a 2-0 success against Fleetwood at Adams Park.

With 558 appearances for the Chairboys as a player over 18 years, Bloomfield’s status as a club legend was already secure before he left Colchester to succeed the long-serving Gareth Ainsworth two weeks ago.

His first two games in charge ended in defeat at Shrewsbury and a home draw against Exeter, but goals by Chris Forino and Sam Vokes gave his side the result that moved them to within four points of the Sky Bet League One play-off places.

Bloomfield said: “It feels amazing. I feel really proud and lucky to be manager of this football club and to get the first win obviously means the world to me.

“I thanked the boys afterwards but it’s not about me, it’s about the way they performed.

“I thought the boys were excellent, I really did. The way they took the game plan and put it into action.

“We learnt a lot from Saturday’s performance and we went over that in training yesterday.

“Again today we tried to put things in place and I thought the way the boys took that onto the pitch and the way they performed, the effort and the endeavour, the togetherness, the organisation was very good tonight.

“Relief, pleased, whatever that emotion is I have it, because it obviously means the world to me to be able to do this job.”

Wycombe took just four minutes to take the lead when Jack Grimmer’s cross was headed in from close range by the unmarked Forino.

Home goalkeeper Max Stryjek had to make good saves to deny Carlos Mendes Gomes and Jack Marriott an equaliser for Fleetwood before Vokes effectively made the game safe with a good finish on the turn.

Fleetwood boss Scott Brown said: “We didn’t switch on from the second phase of a corner (for the first goal).

“Harvey (Macadam) sprints out a little bit too keen, it slips out to the side then it’s an easy goal in the box for us.

“To be fair, you’re always going to up against it coming here and they started well.

“Later in the first half I thought we started to get a good hold of the game and we started the second half really, really well.

“We started to use the width of the park, drive the ball forward and we were creating chances, but we just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.

“Then Vokes’ chance was exceptional to be fair. You can’t take anything away from that – it’s touched and then rapidly finished into the bottom corner.

“That was the difference between the two teams.”