Gareth Ainsworth has explained why he decided to drop main striker Sam Vokes for their home match against Portsmouth on December 4.

The Chairboys won the fixture 2-0 with Anis Mehmeti and Garath McCleary getting the goals, but the shock exclusion was that Vokes, who scored 17 times last season, was dropped to the bench.

He was replaced by Brandon Hanlan who only made his second league start of the campaign.

The move worked as Hanlan, along with Mehmeti and McCleary caused numerous issues for the Pompey backline before the former was replaced by the Welsh international with 11 minutes to go.

READ MORE: Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth names his price for 'unbelievable talent' Anis Mehmeti

Explaining the change, Ainsworth said: “I was telling everyone that if this gets out there will be hell to play.

“I decided that Pompey may go big against us as we still have this tag that we’re big, physical and we need big players to play against us.

“So today [December 4], I wanted to go for quick play and pace up front and it worked.

“It made us different, it put us up the pitch more and we were able to turn their back four who do not like to be turned.

“If Sam Vokes had started, we could have played into their strengths.

“But we played it down the sides and behind them with Brandon, David, Garath, and Anis creating space to give us chances.”

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Vokes has scored 20 goals in 64 games for the club.

In fact, his appearance against Portsmouth was only the second time he had come on as a substitute in a league match for Wycombe since joining the club in the summer of 2021.

The first was against Milton Keynes in a 1-0 defeat in January this year.