Marlow: It will be hard for Wycombe to stay up now (From Bucks Free Press)

Marlow land crushing blow on Bucks rivals

4:32pm Monday 18th February 2013 in Local Sport By Alan Feldberg

MARLOW RFC believe it will be ‘very difficult’ for High Wycombe to avoid relegation after they beat their great Bucks rivals at Kingsmead on Saturday.

If ever Wycombe were going to pull themselves out of trouble it was going to be last weekend, but a third defeat to Marlow this season has virtually extinguished what hopes they might have had.

Marlow coach John Brodley said: “Mathatmetically they’ve still got a chance, but looking at the table it will be very difficult.

“They would need a real surge in form.”

And Brodley says he can’t see that happening after watching his side over-run Wycombe in the second half to win 36-19.

He said: “We’ve just been through a bad patch so we know how they’re feeling.

“Any side in this league can get on a downward spiral so you can’t afford to be complacent.

“Clearly they’ve got some talented players, and the first half was very, very close.

“ut when we got our noses in front their legs went. Perhaps if both teams had been in mid-table they’d have had more fight in them.”

Marlow were just 13-12 at the interval, but two quick tries early in the second half killed off Wycombe’s challenge.

Brodley said: “They tried to force the game to get that score and it opened it up for us.

“We pulled away and ran out easy winners in the end.”

It’s the third time this season Marlow have beaten Wycombe, after they won the home league match 25-20 and then followed up by knocking them out of the Bucks Cup 27-17 in December.

Brodley said: “We felt we’d turned the corner before this game.

“We’d had a really good win against Coney Hill and also played well against Bracknell so were quite confident about the whole thing.

“We were surprisingly relaxed in the dressing room. I think we’d learned from the first game, when we were a bit over-anxious.”

And while the result darkens the cloud over Wycombe, it ended whatever lingering relegation fears Marlow might have had before home fixtures with Bletchley and Newbury Blues.

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