AFTER the jubilation of victory at Manchester City on Saturday afternoon, Wanderers were brought back down to earth with a defeat at Notts County on Tuesday night.

Wanderers saw all their magnificent work at the weekend slip away as they were stung by a single sickening penalty at Meadow Lane in midweek.

It was the backlash after Saturday and as boss Lawrie Sanchez predicted it was one silly mistake that cost Wanderers the point they so badly desired.

He said afterwards: "I said at half time it would be an error that changed the game, make sure it's not yours."

And that error came.

With the second half just ten minutes old, Jamie Bates was judged to have handled the ball in the area as he attempted to counter a County attack and Wanderers were duly punished.

Even the prolific Martin Taylor could not stop Gerry Creaney's powerful spotkick as Meadow Lane erupted with the sound of 4,000-plus Notts fans delirous at the thought that they would not be dragged into the relegation mire that has dogged Wanderers all season.

But the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow. After Saturday's victory, this was a Wanderers side more than capable of beating out-of-form Notts.

With Bates and Paul Emblen back in the fray, gutsy Sanchez even found room to squeeze in youngster Martin Lee for his second start of the season as he rested Steve Brown, who had taken a knock last Saturday.

And although the strike force of Sean Devine and Andy Baird never looked as potent as they had at the weekend, Notts had nothing to frighten Wanderers either.

Boss Sanchez said: "It's disappointing to lose. I thought we could have got something from the game."

But he added: "I didn't have too good a feeling for it. I thought this was an accident waiting to happen. But there again our away run has been spectacular and now we just have to start again. If you'd said we would have three wins, one draw and one defeat before this run I would have settle for that, although I'd have liked a win tonight."

In fact, Blues were at least good for a point. Sanchez and his side, watched by former boss Martin O'Neill, deserved it for the bosses second half gamble on substitutions.

Off came Emblen for speedy Jermaine McSporran as Sanchez pushed more attackers up front to try and net a goal.

But in the end, Wycombe's insistence on playing the long-ball and their inablility time-and-again to win the resulting air battle may have cost them the game.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.