Wanderers 2, Stevenage 2,

Matt Ingram saved a 97th minute penalty to earn Wycombe a point against Stevenage in a feisty affair that had it all at Adams Park.

The home grown stopper flung himself to his right to keep out Dean Parrett’s spot-kick and ensure Blues avoided a third straight home defeat.

Fred Onyedinma had fired Blues in front early on before Parrett and Tom Pett put the visitors ahead at half-time.

The striker netted his seventh of the season to equalise before Chris Beardsley was given his marching orders midway through the second half.

Wycombe had chances to win the match before Ingram’s late heroics ensured they stay third in League Two.

A new look Wanderers side featuring debutants Sam Saunders and Nico Yennaris, who took Paris Cowan-Hall’s and Josh Scowen’s old numbers respectively, set about their play-off chasing visitors from the off, with strike duo Onyedinma and Hayes causing the Stevenage backline all sorts of problems.

Onyedinma, playing in a central role as opposed to the right wing position he has occupied in recent weeks, is a man in form and that much was evident as early as the second minute when he stung the palms of Chris Day with a half-volley after Hayes had teed him up delightfully with a back-heel that will certainly be a contender for inclusion on Soccer AM’s Showboat reel.

The Blues had featured in the show’s Crossbar Challenge segment earlier in the day, and although no Wanderers players managed to strike the bar they had seemingly found their shooting boots in time for kick-off at Adams Park – or at least Onyedinma certainly had.

After ten minutes the on-loan Millwall man raced onto Hayes’ through ball and coolly slotted the ball past the on-rushing Day with all the confidence of a man that scored a tremendous goal in Cumbria last weekend.

The home side were first to every ball, winning every tackle, chasing every lost cause and passing with a tempo which was proving too much for Graham Westley’s men to live with.

But Blues couldn’t sustain their all-action start and an inevitable lull in the game saw Stevenage grow in confidence.

A centre-back pairing of Alfie Mawson and Danny Rowe – who was playing for the first time since Boxing Day – had been completely untroubled when, with their first attack of the match, the visitors levelled the scores with their first shot of the game.

Pett played the ball in behind Joe Jacobson and into the path of Chris Whelpdale before continuing his run into the box where the winger’s cross picked him out with pinpoint accuracy and the striker sent his header back across Matt Ingram and into the bottom corner with half an hour played.

After an opening in which the hosts had looked likely to be heading to an eighth home league win of the season the tables had turned completely by the time the sides trotted off for half-time.

Ingram had twice been tested by Pett and Dean Wells’ snapshots, although he dealt with both efforts with relative ease, before he stood motionless as Dean Parrett put the visitors into an unlikely lead moments after the fourth official had signalled three minutes of stoppage time would be played.

The midfielder stood over a free-kick, positioned just outside the right-hand side of the penalty box, before his low strike crept under the Wanderers wall and evaded the crowd in the area before nestling in the far corner past a statuesque Ingram.

If Wycombe were to avoid a third consecutive defeat in front of their home faithful then they would have to reproduce the intensity they showed in the first 20 minutes of the match.

Under Westley, Stevenage are a team who push the physical side of the game to its limits and that was becoming a source of frustration for everyone of a Wanderers persuasion as the game unfolded.

A perceived lack of action from referee Jeremy Simpson was a target of the home fan’s annoyance, although he did caution the away side’s captain Ronnie Henry for one too many vigorous challenges after an altercation with Hayes.

Saunders was doing his best to inspire a response from his new side and Mawson got on the end of one of his delicious inswinging free-kick which the defender could only head narrowly wide.

The Blues were penning Stevenage inside their own half and Hayes was next to threaten their goal when he sent a half-volley a couple of yards wide of Day’s post.

Westley sent on Charlie Lee, who had left Matt Bloomfield with facial injuries when Blues had played Lee’s then employers Peterborough in 2009, and they rekindled that feud at a corner but shouts for a penalty from the home support were waved away as Bloomfield tumbled under Lee’s challenge at a corner.

It was from another set-piece that Wanderers hauled themselves level to a deafening cheer from the 3,664 people inside Adams Park.

The striker was in the right place at the back post to meet Jacobson’s inswinging corner and send a header flying past Day to equalise.

Ainsworth prowled the touchline kicking every ball as he so often does and he would have sensed the momentum had well and truly turned when Beardsley was shown a second yellow card after kicking out at Sido Jombati having left the Portuguese in a crumpled heap on the turf.

As the match ticked into the final ten minutes Sam Wood improvised superbly and sent an effort towards the top corner with the outside of his left boot which had Day scrambling across his goal before the stopper plucked the ball out of the air at full stretch.

The back four of Stevenage will be having sleepless nights with terrors of Onyedinma haunting them after this display, and the striker nearly got enough contact on his toe-ended effort to trouble Day after the ball broke loose in the box, but he could only send his effort wide of the goal with three minutes remaining.

As was the case at Carlisle last weekend, six minutes of injury time were added on, and with Blues now making all the running there seemed likely to be only one winner.

One chance to win the game was what Ainsworth would have hoped for, and it duly fell to Bloomfield who snatched at a volley and sent it past the post from inside the area as the terrace waited in anticipation behind the goal.

If Blues thought that was their golden chance missed they were wrong as the man of the match Onyedinma might have had a hat-trick as he glanced a header just past the post.

Despair turned to agony for Ainsworth and his side in the final minute of the six added on as substitute Ben Kennedy tumbled under a challenge from Mawson to set-up what looked likely to be a winning goal.

But Ingram had other ideas and flung himself to his right to stop Parrett’s spot kick sparking scenes of raw emotion, sheer relief and untold delight from the home fans.

Wycombe: Ingram, Jombati, Jacobson, Mawson, Rowe, Saunders, Bloomfield, Yennaris, Wood, Hayes, Onyedinma Substitutes not used: Richardson, Craig, Murphy, Fletcher, McClure, Holloway, Ephraim

Stevenage: Day, Deacon, Dembele, Wells, Henry, Whelpdale, Walton (Kennedy), Parrett, Martin (Lee), Pett (Conlon), Beardsley Substitutes not used: Beasant, Bond, Johnson, Andrade