Wycombe Wanderers held on for a gritty 0-0 draw with local rivals Oxford United in a fiercely contested League One encounter at Adams Park.

However, the Blues were indebted to goalkeeper Ryan Allsop for a string of fantastic saves, most notably performing a miraculous save to deny Ricky Holmes by tipping his piledriver, which was destined for the top corner, onto the bar in the first half.

Wycombe almost nicked it with a minute of normal time to go when Adebayo Akinfenwa thumped home a header from Joe Jacobson's free kick but the assistant referee adjudged the striker to be offside.

Oxford United made a fast start to the game and Shandon Baptiste wriggled through several challenges in the second minute but Jacobson made a last-gasp clearance to deny the midfielder.

It was a fairly scrappy start to the game at Adams Park, with neither side creating anything of note.

Wanderers came so close to taking the lead, however, on 14 minutes when Randell Williams met Jacobson’s wicked corner with a firm header which crashed against the crossbar.

The match suffered a lengthy delay as Cameron Brannagan had to come off due to a sickening clash of heads with his team-mate, Cameron Norman.

The Blues were edging back into the match after the restart and Craig Mackail-Smith’s header went just wide from Michael Harriman’s cross on 28 minutes.

Oxford hit back and Jon Obika came close a minute later when he headed over from Curtis Nelson’s cross.

Baptiste almost gave the U’s the lead on the half hour mark when he skipped past Harriman and drove into the area before curling a shot just wide of the far post.

Karl Robinson’s side were playing at a very high tempo and Gavin Whyte had two bits of the cherry on 34 minutes but Allsop was equal to both efforts.

Allsop then pulled off a miraculous save on 38 minutes when he somehow tipped Ricky Holmes’ piledriver onto the bar.

Whyte was beginning to cause the Chairboys backline a few issues and his shot on 39 minutes was easily held by Allsop after a jinking run.

With 10 minutes added on due to Brannagan’s injury, Oxford were continuing to pile on the pressure and the dangerous Holmes saw a shot blocked in first half stoppage time before Baptiste shot over.

Bryn Morris wasn’t too far from scoring a spectacular effort for the home side just before the break but his volley was always going wide.

Jacobson had the final chance of a truncated first 45 minutes but his long-range strike was comfortably caught by Jonathan Mitchell.

The visitors almost broke the deadlock on 47 minutes when Nelson headed Luke Garbutt’s corner just wide with Allsop beaten.

Wycombe came back strongly and Fred Onyedinma saw his effort deflected just over two minutes later.

The second half started at a furious rate of knots and Allsop had to be at his best to tip Whyte’s dangerous cross over on 50 minutes.

From a corner 60 seconds later, the inspired Wanderers keeper made another terrific save to deny John Mousinho’s header.

Wanderers were clinging on with Oxford rampant but the Blues were still battling and scrapping for everything against their local rivals.

Akinfenwa came on for the hosts to give them so more impetus in attack and they started to work their way back into the game.

The game was becoming fractious and both sides were involved in a couple of scraps with the referee David Webb keeping a lid in the simmering tensions.

Onyedinma was becoming more of a threat and with 10 minutes to go he raced past Cameron Norman but lashed into the side netting.

With the minutes ticking down, Wycombe had one great chance and Akinfenwa thought he sent Adams Park into raptures with a terrific header but it was ruled out.

An enthralling 0-0 between the two rivals with Wanderers showing tremendous guts to get a draw.

WYCOMBE WANDERERS: Allsop, McCarthy, Jombati, Stewart (sub: Harriman, 7), Jacobson, Morris, Gape, Bloomfield, Williams, Mackail-Smith (sub: Akinfenwa, 61), Onyedinma. Subs: Ma-Kalambay, Saunders, Kashket, Cowan-Hall, Thompson.

OXFORD UNITED: Mitchell, Norman, Nelson, Mousinho, Garbutt, Brannagan (sub: Ruffels, 23), Baptiste, Whyte, Obika (sub: Smith, 75), Henry (sub: Browne, 63), Holmes. Subs: Shearer, Dickie, Raglan, Long.

REFEREE: David Webb