BLUES boss Gareth Ainsworth said he would have taken a 1-1 draw at league leaders Leyton Orient before the kick off but admitted he was ‘gutted’ to take just that at the end.

His team looked to be on course for all three points courtesy of a scrambled goal which both Gozie Ogwu and Matt Bloomfield laid claim to before the hosts conceded an equaliser to Jay Simpson after a defensive error from Sido Jombati.

Ainworth said: “I’m gutted not to get three points. It was a sloppy goal to give away and there were a couple of incidents in the game that I thought could have changed the game.”

Blues thought they should have had a penalty when Bloomfield was introduced face first to the grass deep into the second half and the Os full back Sean Clohessy somehow escaped a second yellow card for a desperately poor tackle on Joe Jacobson.

Ainworth said: “I’m not going to ask for any player to be sent off but I will be looking closely at that one.”

But despite the key talking points going against his men, Ainsworth said: “I’m a really pleased manager. A point before the game I would have taken and it just goes to show hard far we have come because we are a much smaller club than Leyton Orient.  It was a big giant against us and we have stood up to them and then some.

“I don’t think Orient will have too many teams coming here and giving them a real game like we have done. I’m really proud of my players. I had lads cramping up at the end because of the effort they put in. And it’s great to see because they don’t leave anything out there.

“Roll on next week because there is a lot to build on.”

While Ainsworth lavished praise on his team he should take some himself for the way he set out his tactics to counter the hosts, opting to play without wingers.

He explained: “We set up to stifle their game in midfield. We changed our tactics and played without wingers and it worked a treat. I didn’t think they had too much of an answer to what we were doing. In the second half they changed things and went with a big man up front and went very direct and that’s a compliment to us that they have had to change.”

He also paid tribute to the two men who are still battling over the ownership of the goal.

He said: “I thought Gozie was outstanding he led the line really well and I thought Matt who hasn’t played a minute for me yet this season was excellent. He’s Wycombe through and through and he will give everything for this club as he did today. It was purely tactical to bring Matt back in, we’ve changed the way we play because we have watched Orient, we know how they love to dominate midfield and come through that so we set up as a 4-1-3-2 and I thought it worked really well, exactly as we planned.

“We got plenty of forward play from that and I think we were probably the closest of the two teams to get the three points but it just eluded us.”

His team looked comfortable on their lead until first Aaron Pierre failed to clear and then Jombati compounded the error when he got caught out overplaying.

Ainsworth said: “It was a bit of a mix-up at the back. We’ve got a right back playing at centre back and it’s tough sometimes. We’re asking Sido to do a few things he’s not used to but he’s one helluva defender and in he’s in my team every week.

“There’s no fault, there’s no blame for anything. These things happen. We were the side that looked more likely to score at the time and we could have nicked it right at the end.

“We’ve got a point here at Leyton Orient and if too many teams can say that this season I will be surprised.”