Gareth Ainsworth has revealed that he decided to make wholesale changes in Wanderers’ last two festive fixtures after ‘looking back at results from five years ago.’

Prior to this season, Wycombe had a notorious record of not being able to pick points over the Christmas and New Year periods – with the Chairboys only winning six fixtures over the festive season since 2017.

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However, the Adams Park team have managed to pick up nine points from 12 this season, with Wycombe’s only blemish coming against Plymouth Argyle who sit top of the table.

The other victories were against Ipswich Town, Bristol Rovers, and Peterborough United respectively.

Speaking after the club’s 3-0 win over the Posh on New Year's Day, Ainsworth said: “Everyone now knows that my plan was to rest everyone for the middle game [against Plymouth].

 

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“I looked back at our recent Christmas results over the last five years and thought, ‘why have not we picked up many points over Christmas?’

“‘What is going wrong?’

“We looked at tactics, performances, and selection, and we noticed that I had pretty much used the same team for the three games.

“So I decided to change it up about four weeks ago and no disrespect to squads gone by, but, we haven’t had a squad like this before, as we are changing players like for like, and I thought the difference today was the energy.

“We pressed, we battled and it looked like we could have gone on for a lot longer.

“Their home record is really good and I’m pleased the boys believed in themselves as this helped get the win.

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“The boys were up for it and I’m really happy with where we are because this is a really hard place to come.”

The victory has not only put Wanderers back in the play-off places, but it was the club’s first win over the Posh at London Road since May 2006, and it was the first-time Wycombe had done the double over Peterborough since the 2002/03 season.

Additionally, Wycombe are three games unbeaten over the Cambridgeshire side.

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Speaking on the fans that made the trip up, he added: “Thank you to everyone who came up to Peterborough as you made so much noise.

“It really got me going and they were brilliant and they came in numbers and they did not stop signing.

“So thank you for that.”

"You were brilliant."

Wycombe's next game is on January 14 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.