Wanderers 2

Mansfield Town 1

 

PETER Murphy popped up to score his fourth goal of the season from midfield as Wycombe Wanderers ended a mini-goal drought to sink last season’s saviours Mansfield Town 2-1.

Blues went behind after just four minutes when Matt Rhead rose to head in from a corner for the Stags and show no sign of extending the courtesy given when helping keep them in the league at the death last campaign.

But man of the match Paul Hayes was on hand to capitalise on a soft penalty award after half an hour, before Murphy nodded in from close range with ten minutes to go to seal the three points for the Chairboys.

Four months ago the Stags proved Blues’ lifeline, sending the Adams Park faithful into fits of delirium when they sank Bristol Rovers on the last game of the season to keep Wanderers up.

Blues stepped out with frustratingly few goals to their name in recent matches, failing to find the back of the net on five of their last seven in all competitions – a statistic that has already seen them dumped out of two cup competitions at the first hurdle.

And though his team have been carving out opportunities, Ainsworth wasn’t helped with the absence of frontman Steven Craig, sidelined after suffering a nasty concussion during last week’s draw with Bury.

This gave Adam Holloway an opportunity to step up alongside Paul Hayes, with Sam Wood pushing forward to form an impromptu 4-3-3 formation.

Paris Cowan-Hall, who suffered with niggling injuries so much of last season, was ruled out with a knock after making a bright start to the campaign, with Josh Scowen taking his place.

A largely positive start to the new league season saw the Chairboys nestled in fifth with the arrival of a patchy Mansfield side, who with two away losses on the board were hoping to find some consistency on the road.

If Blues fans expected a second dose of help from the Stags, they were mistaken, when an early test for keeper Matt Ingram saw him tip round the post when Rakish Bingham fired from close range inside two minutes.

And two minutes later, Bingham broke free again, with bags of time at his disposal, almost too much, as he ran out of time to slot the ball past the onrushing keeper.

And Wanderers were made to pay, when from the resulting corner, Rhead rose to head unchallenged and thunder the ball past a hapless Ingram.

Bingham continued to prove a thorn in Blues’ side, breaking free again but this time being ruled offside in his second one-on-one with Ingram.

A response from Wanderers saw Aaron Pierre tee himself up for a 20-yard drive in the mould of a centre forward, with the ball oinly just fizzing over.

Rhead almost scored an identical second, rising in the right place at the right time after another corner to nod goalwards – but this time Ingram collected.

Paul Hayes failed to connect properly with his first real effort of the day, his speculative half volley whizzing far over the bar as Blues searched leveller.

Some good work by Scowen on the right allowed Joe Jacobson to whip one in, but no head came to meet it.

And another excellent delivery from the Welshman, this time from the right, came to the same end, as Blues seemed to wake up as the half grew older.

A nasty challenge on Jacobson saw Liam Marsden earn a yellow card, and on another day, could have seen red, after recklessly diving in to halt his progress towards the box.

The referee pointed to the spot after a handball by Stags’ Martin Riley after half an hour, and while it looked suspiciously close to being outside the box, Hayes stepped up to coolly slot the ball home to the keeeper's left for an equaliser.

And it should have been 2-1 moments later when Hayes burst down the right and set up Holloway, who with the goal gaping, sliced the ball over from close range under pressure from the retreating Mansfield defence.

Both sides pressed hard for another as half time approached, with Holloway a whisker away from putting Blues ahead but couldn’t connect with Wood’s looping cross form the right.

Ainsworth replaced Holloway at half time, with Matt McClure given the nod to kick Wanderers on and find a second.

And the homes side were the brighter of the two early on in the second period, keeping the majority of the play in the Stags’ half.

But as Mansfield found their way back into the game, Rhead again had a chance to climb above the Blues back line and get a header away, this time wide as the home defence struggled to contain him.

Scowen was unlucky to see his effort blocked after scampering down the right wing and perservering to put himself in a shooting position.

The busy Aaron Pierre popped up on numerous occasions to make important stops, calmly sliding in the box to prevent Bingham from closing in on a goal scoring chance after 70 minutes.

But it was Peter Murphy who took the initiative to nod in his fourth goal of the season from close range and put Blues ahead, after Hayes had redirected Jacobson’s cross back across goal and the prolific scouser reacted quickest.

But picking up what appeared to be a head injury in the process, the goal hero was helped off and replaced with Matt Bloomfield.

The final few minutes saw a penalty shout for the visitors as Stuart Lewis appeared to handle the ball in the box, but the referee ingored the claims.

And a ping pong exchange at the other end saw the ball fall to Wood, whose thumped drive was stopped well by keeper Dimitar Evtimov.

And as Blues saw out the dying moments of the game, Paul Cox was sent to the stands after a heated exhange with the fourth official.

Wanderers: Ingram, Jombati, Jacobson, Pierre, Mawson, Scowen (Lewis 76), Murphy (Bloomfield 80), Rowe, Wood, Hayes (c), Holloway (McClure 45)

Attendance: 3106