Wycombe Wanderers Football Club - The Chairboys

Wycombe Wanderers History

2006-07 Season

12th in League Two
League Cup: Semi Finals; lost 5-1 on aggregate to Chelsea
FA Cup: 2nd round; Stockport County a. 1-2
JP Trophy: 2nd round; Bristol Rovers h. 0-2

Highlight:
1-0 win at Charlton Athletic in the League Cup quarter final, 19/12/06

Low Spot:
3-0 defeat at Torquay United, 10/3/07

Good:
Kevin Betsy
Explosively exciting winger who was rampant before moving to Bristol City to help them win promotion from League One. In his absence Wycombe went backwards fast.
Jermaine Easter
Still not consistent enough to really tempt the bigger clubs but he is a class act on his day. Scored 16 league goals and 6 more in the League Cup when he demonstrated that he has the pace and ability to trouble defences of a higher standard.
You feel a really big season is waiting to burst out of him.

In Brief:
The Chairboys made a brilliant start in both the league and League Cup. At the end of October the club lay 3rd in League Two with 32 points from 16 games and were in the process of knocking Swansea, Fulham, Doncaster, Notts County and Charlton out of the League Cup on their way to a semi final meeting with Chelsea.
The cup run proved a distraction, however, and the sale of Kevin Betsy to Bristol City also had a hugely detrimental effect on the clubs' league form and only 4 games were won in the second half of the season.
In fact four straight defeats to end the campaign leave major question marks about the clubs' prospects next season.

Wycombe Wanderers Football Club was formed in 1887 by a group of furniture workers, hence the mickname The Chairboys.

The clubs' first notbale success came in 1931 when it won the FA Amatuer Cup with victory over Hayes at Highbury.

In 1956 Wycombe were winners of the Isthmian League for the first time and would eventually end up with eight titles in that league.

1957 saw the club again reach the FA Amatuer Cup final. By this time the final was staged at Wembley and over 90,000 people were present to see The Chairboys lose out to Bishop Auckland.

Wycombe reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup for the first time in 1974-75 and were paired at home to first division Middlesbrough. Boro were extremely fortunate to escape with a goalless draw from the sloping, muddy Loakes Park ground.

The Chairboys also performed with distinction in the replay at Ayresome Park before going down to a solitary late goal.

In 1985 Wycombe were promoted into the Gola League, now the Vauxhall Conference, but were relegated immediately. The club then returned at the first time of asking in 1987 and this time managed to establish themselves at the top level of non league football.

The catalyst for genuine success was the appointment as manager of Martin O'Neill in February 1990.

In 1991 O'Neill led the club to victory in the FA Trophy with a 2-1 victory over Kidderminster Harriers.

The following season The Chairboys collected an impressive 94 points in the Conference but still missed out on promotion to the Football League on goal difference behind Colchester United.

Despite then only finishing with a total of 83 points in 1993 this still saw them promoted to the league as Conference champions by a whopping 15 points from their closest challengers, Bromsgrove Rovers.

Victory in the FA Trophy made it a double success for Wycombe, Runcorn being soundly beaten 4-1 in the final.

Wycombe ended their first season of league football in a play off position and clinched promotion after beating Carlisle United 4-1 on aggregate in the semi finals and Preston North End 4-2 in the final.

The Chairboys then finished 6th in Division Two in 1995 but were denied a place in the play offs as only one team went up automatically that season due to a reduction of teams in the Premier League being implemented.

With O'Neill then leaving Adams Park the club slipped into the lower reaches of the third tier although it would be 2004 before they would finally slip to relegation.

The obvious highlight of The Chairboys history came in 2000-01 when the club made it all the way to the FA Cup semi finals under Lawrie Sanchez.

After beating Harrow Borough in the 1st round Wanderers then disposed of Millwall after a replay. Another replay was required in the 3rd round before Grimsby were beaten 3-1.

A fine 2-1 win over Wolves followed in the 4th round to set up a meeting with Wimbledon, Sanchez's former club, in round 5.

The clubs drew 2-2 at Adams Park and were still level after 90 minutes in the replay at Selhurst Park. It looked as though Wycombe's run was over as they fell behind in extra time only for the defender Paul McCarthy to level in the dying seconds.

The Chairboys then held their nerve to triumph 8-7 in the penalty shootout.

The quarter final was even more dramatic. Wycombe were facing Premier League opposition for the first time during the run after being draw away at Leicester City. The club had six forwards out injured and in desperation Sanchez placed an advert on the internet for a striker who was not cup tied.

Roy Essandoh was the only man to respond and was handed a two week contract.

McCarthy put Wycombe ahead and after Leicester had equalised Essandoh stepped off the bench to head a last minute winner.

To add to the surreal nature of the afternoon Sanchez was watching the game on television in the tunnel by this stage having been sent off for complaining about the refusal of a penalty appeal by his side.

Wycombe also covered themselves in glory in the semi final. They held Liverpool for 78 minutes at Villa Park before conceding goals to Emile Heskey and Robbie Fowler.

Even then Keith Ryan managed to pull a goal back but this time there would be no fairytale ending.

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