Gareth Ainsworth feels that Friday’s friendly against Leeds United has helped ensure his side remain sharp during their enforced break.

The Chairboys went down 2-0 thanks to goals from Lee Erwin and Sam Bryam as Championship side Leeds showed greater attacking quality.

Despite the result Ainsworth was happy with a solid performance that will go a long way to ensuring the Blues are fully match fit for their next game against Wimbledon.

“We are pleased with our performance against a Championship side and for a club the size of Leeds to come down and play us was phenomenal,” he said.

“We have kept players fit and made sure they are match ready and not only that but we have got fans down to Adams Park for what was a good fixture.

“We weren’t a million miles away from scoring a goal and maybe it would have been a little fairer a result if we did score.”

Wycombe suffered a dip in form earlier in the year after having a game called off and Ainsworth was keen to avoid similar mistakes this time round.

Leeds showed the clinical touch expected of a Championship side but Wanderers coped admirably with the challenge presented by Steve Evans’ side.

Ainsworth felt that Wycombe played well against a decent side and were not as far away from Leeds’ level as the 2-0 score suggested.

He said: “You have a little mistake against a Championship side and they will punish you and that’s what Leeds did.

“I don’t think we were that far behind them and that is not something that a lot of people would have expected before the game so I’m really pleased about that.”

The game saw Ainsworth make eight changes from his previous starting line-up and also saw a number of lesser used players get some valuable minutes under their belts.

While Ainsworth pointed out that he has used every member of his squad throughout the season he emphasised the importance of certain players making appearances.

Anthony Stewart played the full 90 minutes and Alex Lynch was in fine form throughout the game as he stepped in for Matt Ingram.

Ainsworth explained: “It was good for Anthony to get 90 minutes under his belt and I felt Alex Lynch performed very well tonight.”