GARETH Ainsworth said his squad believe in themselves again after climbing all the way to the summit of League Two with another win this afternoon.

A quiet, desperate hope was all the Blues boss had to cling onto going into a seemingly hopeless position on the final day of last season.

Fast forward five months and a genuine belief Wanderers can beat whichever opponent is put in front of them has been restored, with fans getting ever more optimistic their side can go places this season.

A 3-1 win at Morecambe today was their seventh from 12 matches, and with just a dozen games played they’re already halfway to last year’s total and to matching Ainsworth’s survival target.

The Blues boss said it was ‘pure belief’ that had inspired that never to be forgotten great escape at Torquay back in May, and those emotions have now provided the springboard to their rise up the table from the depths of despair they plunged last season.

He said: “Going to Torquay I had to believe, I had to make everyone else believe. It was tough – I had to dig deep myself - but I believed, got all the players to believe and the fans to believe.

“This morning when you come here you’ve got to believe you can win games. It’s a tough place – fifth in the league – but with the squad I’ve got, the characters I’ve got; they have gelled quicker than I thought they would but I believe we can win every game, we can be competitive in every League Two game this season. Performances like that back that up.

“I would be doing everyone at Wycombe a disservice if I started getting carried away and started believing we are the best team in the league. Today we are up there – tomorrow could be a different story.

“We are a step closer to our target total to survive in League Two. I can say that without even smiling because that’s what I want to do. We won’t talk about anything else until we get just over 50 points – then you might get something else out of me.

“I’m proud and surprised as well at how quickly they’ve gelled. In the summer we went out and really did our homework. I was on holiday on my phone; Dobbo [Richard Dobson, assistant] was on holiday with his phone, and Baz [Richardson, coach]. We really did check these players out before we signed them.

“Every signing in the future will be checked the same way because they have gelled really quickly.

“Ask me next May what I think and we’ll see what answer I give, but at the moment we are as far away as we can possibly be from last season and that will do me.”

Two of those signings, Paul Hayes and Joe Jacobson, helped make the difference by adding to the lead given to them by Sam Wood’s stunning 40 yard volley.

Hayes is filling the shoes of the goal poacher Wanderers needed last year as he snaffled his sixth of the campaign, while Jacobson sealed things with his maiden strike in a Blues shirt with a terrific free kick.

His goal eased the tension as Morecambe threatened to come back into the game after Andy Fleming’s header and Ainsworth being forced to field full back Sido Jombati at centre half and Josh Scowen at right back after an injury to Aaron Pierre.

Jamie Devitt had been sent off before Jacobson’s goal but Ainsworth said his side still had to see the game out.

He said: “I’m so pleased the boys have applied themselves the way they have.

“It’s not a great time to concede. We had a little tweak, I had a few choice words with a few people, and the performance improved in the second half. We played passes, we closed the game and could have added a couple more to our tally.

“Morecambe have won games this season with ten men, so that’s a positive for us.

“Jim [Bentley, Morecambe manager] sets his teams up well. They play good football, they have got powerful forwards, they score goals, so to come here and play the way we did – people will look at the score and think it was an easy one for us; it wasn’t at all. It was a tough game today.”