For the first time this season, Wanderers are going through something of a rough patch, as the FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool made it just one win in eight.

Three weeks ago, Wycombe looked in imperious form, sweeping aside all that was in front of them with a minimum of fuss, without even having to play at their best on several occasions.

As the games go by, the surrendering of a 3-1 lead at Fleetwood when playing so well looks to be becoming more and more of a turning point.

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Wycombe have now gone three games without even scoring, all three of those coming at home in the last 10 days.

Wanderers’ campaigns in both the Papa John’s Trophy and the FA Cup have come to an end, so there could be positives to take from the fact that it’s only the league to focus on from now until the end of April.

It also means Gareth Ainsworth’s team will have a weekend off at the start of December to recover from the current busy run of fixtures and prepare for the packed festive schedule.

Saturday’s game at home to Bolton, Wycombe’s fourth straight home fixture, now looks like a very important one.

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The three sides directly below Wanderers in the table all have games in hand on the Chairboys, so Wycombe need to put some points on the board before tricky trips to Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday next week.

Bolton will have had a day less to prepare after playing Stockport in the FA Cup on Wednesday, but are treading water in mid-table after a good start to the season.

Trotters manager Ian Evatt often makes no bones about how good he thinks his side are, but after going unbeaten in the first four this season, they’ve picked up just 10 points from their last 10 games.

They did beat Crewe on Friday, but the Railwaymen were abject on the night and look destined for relegation.

Eoin Doyle hasn’t lived up to expectations in the goalscoring department, and after Antoni Sarcevic left for Stockport, a lot of the creative responsibility is falling to Welsh youngster Josh Sheehan.

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For Wycombe, the decision to play both Sam Vokes and Adebayo Akinfenwa against Hartlepool didn’t work anything like as well as it did at Fleetwood, so Ainsworth may have to re-think how best to set up tactically if Garath McCleary is still unavailable.

Many would say McCleary has been Wycombe’s best player this season, and the team have certainly missed him, but if he’s not back soon, Wanderers will have to start picking up results again quickly, or they could slip out of the play-off mix.