Team News:
John Akinde (hamstring), Jamie Stephens (knee) and Curtis Weston (knee) are all on the road to recovery from their injuries but aren’t likely to feature in the coming weeks. Dave Tarpey (knee), Elliott Johnson (knee) and Richard Brindley (foot) are all suffering from long-term problems.
Last Time We Met:
The previous meeting between the two sides in April 2017 at The Hive London saw Wycombe comes away with a 2-0 win.
A 21st-minute strike from midfielder Sam Saunders and a last-minute penalty from Joe Jacobson for The Chairboys comfortably saw the Bees beaten.
It was a scrappy affair that saw ten yellow cards split between the two sides, three of which coming in the 90th minute.
This was Rossi Eames’ first match in charge of Barnet since becoming the caretaker manager, following the departure of Kevin Nugent.
Manager: Gareth Ainsworth
Following a distinguished playing career at all four levels of English football with Preston, Wimbledon and QPR, Ainsworth began his coaching career at Wycombe Wanderers in a player-coach role in 2011, having earned legendary status in his final years as a player.
The former QPR caretaker boss was handed the reins at Adams Park in September that year and steered the club away from relegation before hanging up his boots after his 600th career appearance against Port Vale.
Financial restraints contributed to a testing 2013/14 on but Ainsworth successfully kept the Wanderers in the Football League thanks to a final day victory, and followed it up with an outstanding campaign which culminated in a play-off final at Wembley, having achieved the club’s best ever points tally in the Football League.
Ainsworth was named the LMA League Two Manager of the Year for his efforts, and also won the Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month prize in April, before going on to lead his side to an FA Cup third round replay against Aston Villa and a mid-table finish in the 2015/16 campaign.
2016/17 was another memorable campaign under Gareth Ainsworth; playing out an FA Cup classic at White Hart Lane against Spurs in the fourth round, narrowly losing 4-3. There was also a Checkatrade Trophy semi-final appearance vs Coventry City, and in the league, the Chairboys missed out on a play-off spot by a point in a tightly contested race which went down to the final day.
Connections:
While at Bristol City, John Akinde went on loan to Wycombe until the end of the 2008/09 season making 11 league appearances, scoring seven goals. He then went back on loan to
The Chairboys at the start of the 2009/10 season, making six league appearances, scoring one goal before being recalled back to Ashton Gate.
Dangerman:
Adebayo Akinfenwa is one of the most popular footballers in England and is a player who can certainly make an impact. Five goals and two assists in eight Sky Bet League Two appearances this season show he’s still a quality player to have in your team.
He got his first big break playing for Swansea City in 2005, picking up a Football League Trophy in his two years at The Swans.
After a short spell at Millwall, he joined Northampton Town, in what would be his first spell at the club. Across both spells at Sixfields he made over 150 league appearances, scoring 71 goals.
Arguably his greatest achievement came at AFC Wimbledon though, scoring a penalty at Wembley Stadium in their 2-0 play-off final win against Plymouth, securing The Dons a first ever season in League One.
With plenty of power and a keen eye for goal, Akinfenwa is certainly a player everyone knows about and can certainly be a hard player to contain on match day.
Last Time Out:
On Tuesday night (26th), Wycombe scored two late goals, coming from behind to beat Crewe Alexandria 3-2 at Adams Park.
It was the Chairboys that took the lead, Adebayo Akinfenwa played in Craig Mackail-Smith who rounded the keeper and tapped the ball into the empty net.
However, a brace from Chris Dagnall either side of half-time saw Crewe take the lead going into the last five minutes.
Wycombe thought they’d stolen a point when Michael Harriman found the bottom corner in the 88th minute.
But they got more than they bargained for when Nathan Tyson made a lovely run down the left before letting rip outside the box giving Crewe keeper Ben Garratt no chance.
Wycombe Wanderers: Brown, Jacobson, El-Abd, Saunders (81’ Freeman), Bean, Harriman, Akinfenwa, Tyson, Mackail-Smith (73’ Umerah), Eze, Scarr (70’ Stewart).
Unused Subs: Richardson, Jombati, Gape, Southwell
Ticket info:
Adults – £20
Senior Citizens (60+) – £17
Young Adult (18-25) – £15
U17 – £1
£2 price rise on the day excluding U17’s.
To book, call the Wycombe Ticket Office on 01494 441118 or pay at the cash turnstile on the day.
Keep up with the game:
Full match commentary from every game is available on iFollow. If you are based outside of the UK & Ireland, you canwatch the game live on iFollow.
You can also get live match updates on Twitter throughout the afternoon. We are also on Facebook and will go behind the scenes on our Instagram.
