Wanderers in play-off slipstream

The Chairboys are now just six points behind Burton in seventh place after the club’s continued renaissance under player-boss Gareth Ainsworth.

The fans and players would be forgiven for looking up the table instead of over their shoulders, but Ainsworth will not let himself get carried away.

He said: “Others might be but I’m not. It’s something I’ve made myself aware of. I’m careful in ambition, targets and signings, I don’t sign many players and the ones I do sign I try to make them the best ones.

“I’m a careful guy in management and that’s how I want to stay, looking forward would be a little naive, I’m just looking at where we are and try to build as many points as we can - the table doesn’t lie after 46 games.”

Ainsworth tasted defeat in his first game in charge and the Blues even plummeted to the foot of the Football League in November before their current run propelled them clear of danger and into the play-off picture.

Some are making direct comparisons between the side that lost 3-0 at the Daggers in Ainsworth’s first match in the hot seat to the team that that won on Saturday and closed within a point of John Still’s men.

But Ainsworth believes people should look at the bigger picture and is living by some wise words his opposite number passed down to him.

He said: “Win, lose or draw on Saturday it wasn’t a comparison – the comparison is over the last 12 games.

“We hit rock-bottom at one stage and I’d rather people looked at the work we’ve put in during that rather than two games. There are forward steps.

"I have a lot of respect for John. I played under him and he furthered my career as a player with the advice he gave me. And he has as a manager too.

“After the last game between us [in September] he gave me the best advice I've had since becoming a manager.

“He said don't let the highs get too high and the lows get too low, and that's really shaped my attitude towards management."