Referee Fraser Stretton overshadowed Wycombe's match with Swindon on Saturday, with what can only be called an awful refereeing performance, that he in particular, always seems to come up with when in charge on a Wanderers match.

Swindon Town came to Adams Park in 11th place, 5 below Wycombe, and with former Liverpool manager Roy Evans at the helm, the chairboys knew they would be in for a tough match.

Wycombe started brightly though, and with new signing Stuart Roberts making his home debut, he put in a very impressive performance.

Roberts was the only change to Tuesday's starting line-up in the 2-2 draw against rivals Colchester.

On 6 minutes, he was on the end of a brilliant move involving Darren Currie and Andy Rammell, he esquisitely turned Neil Ruddock, leaving him on the ground and squeezed in a shot which just failed to cross the line, but Wanderers' fans could see already what they would be in for in the future.

Wycombe were passing the ball around nicely and Richard Walker had an attempt on 17 minutes where he turned just outside the area and shot powerfully, just missing the top corner.

It was Swindon who took the lead though, when on 24 minutes, loanee Wayne Carlisle made space and hit an excellent swerving shot past Martin Taylor, and was reminicent of Darren Currie's equaliser against Colchester on Tuesday.

Wycombe continued pressing though, and despite sloppy, careless passing at times, they continued to create the chances.

Danny Senda was given an excellent heading opportunity 5 minutes from the break, when Currie crossed from the left, but he falied to make enough contact for it to divert the ball goalwards, but he made too much contact to keep it within the reach of the waiting Andy Rammell at the far post.

The equaliser did eventually come though, when a through ball from Michael Simpson gave Roberts room to run and he placed a perfectly timed cross on to the left foot of the incoming Richard Walker who diverted the ball past Griemink with the last kick of the half.

In the second half Wycombe had a penalty claim very early on, when Roberts was clearly brought down inside the area by David Duke, but Fraser Stretton refused to acknowledge the clear foul and waved play on.

As the second half went on, Stretton got worse, continously making awful decisions that so many times could have given Swindon a goal.

Wycombe, at this time refused to let the referee get to them though and should have made it 2-1 when Danny Senda's shot was brilliantly parried away at point blank range by keeper' Griemink.

Swindon then had their chance to get the winner on 84 minutes when Danny Invincible managed to get a shot in that was heading for the far corner of the goal, until Martin Taylor stuck out an arm and just managed to claw the ball out for a corner, and the shouts of 'Taylor for England' were once again deserved.

Fraser Stretton then decided to infuriate the Wycombe fans further when he sent off Wanderers goalscorer Richard Walker for arguing with him about his decision not to give a penalty for another bad tackle on Roberts, who was clearly too much for Swindon to handle.

It finished 1-1 in front of Wycombe's second biggest home attendance of the season and maintained their unbeaten run to 9 games in total.

Wycombe line-up

Taylor, Senda, Vinnicombe, Rogers, McCarthy(c), Currie, Brown(Bulman), Simpson, Roberts(Holligan), Rammell(Ryan), Walker.

Swindon line-up

Griemink, Hewlett, Willis, Duke, Ruddock, Grazioli(Osei-Kuffour), Heywood, Robinson, Invincible, Edwards(McAreavey)

Attendance: 7,127

By Sean Bradshaw

October 27, 2001 21:00