The visit of struggling Fleetwood Town on Saturday, January 27 provides the perfect opportunity for Wycombe to get their dismal home record back on track.

Wanderers have won only four of their thirteen league games at Adams Park this season, but they are favourites to beat Fleetwood who they defeated 4-1 in Lancashire in October, their biggest win of the campaign.

Fleetwood, now managed by former Scotland international and Premier League star Charlie Adam, are on a dreadful run of 13 games without a win in all competitions including five successive defeats.

The Chairboys have an excellent record against them with just one defeat in the last eleven meetings, although five of those games were drawn.

This latest encounter looks likely to attract one of the lowest home attendances of the season with average crowds down by almost one thousand from the 5,753 of the previous campaign. 

The last home game against Lincoln City was watched by just 4,470 spectators, the lowest crowd of the day in League One and fewer than seven attendances in League Two.

Poor results, the cost-of-living crisis, games switched from Saturday afternoon to midweek etc, are all valid factors in the decline, but does it fully explain the apparent apathy of the town towards its local club?

Wanderers have achieved remarkable success in their thirty years in the EFL, but they are constantly fighting against the odds in a league consisting of clubs with a much bigger supporter base.

There is a direct correlation between a team’s position in the table and the number of fans who pay to watch them play.

Higher attendances mean greater spending power and the ability to attract and recruit better players.

The current top three in League One also lead the way for highest attendances, and in the twenty years since League One was formed, fifty-six clubs have been promoted to the Championship with only three of them having smaller home crowds than Wycombe.

Unless more people in the area show their support by attending games, owner Rob Couhig’s pledge to make Wanderers financially sustainable looks increasingly difficult to achieve.