From the depths of a nine-game winless run to back-to-back wins, football can change quickly. While it was a scrappy and frustrating showing overall against Southend, the Sky Blues produced an attacking move of supreme quality and poise to score the game’s decisive goal. While that recent winless isn’t quite behind us yet, stringing together a third win in a row away at a tough Wycombe Wanderers side would be a huge step in the right direction.
Possible Line-Up
Expected Line-Up
The late substitution of Brandon Mason for the teenager Sam McCallum in the Southend game underlined how stretched the squad is at the moment. There are few changes available to Mark Robins, which could be a huge factor in how a fourth game in the space of 11 days plays out.
The main area for potential tweaking is in attack, where the continued struggles of Conor Chaplin in front of goal came into focus once again with two notable misses against Southend. With Jordy Hiwula showing good form at the moment in front of goal, it’s hard to see what role a misfiring small forward plays in the starting line-up. Jonson Clarke-Harris’ physical presence would appear to be a good foil for Hiwula’s sheer pace and is surely worth a try.
Elsewhere, Zain Westbrooke is likely to continue on the right of midfield after making his debut on Saturday. Although the former Brentford youngster caught the eye with his use of the ball, his lack of direct running made it difficult for us to break through the opposing defence. Promisingly, Westbrooke’s link play with Dujon Sterling on the wing points towards a way the team can overcome our current lack of penetration in wide areas.
Last Time We Met
It looked set to be a frustrating afternoon at the Ricoh Arena as the Sky Blues struggled to find a breakthrough against a resolute Wycombe side who had made it clear from early on that they were content with a point. It took an almost nonchalant pitch-length break from Dujon Sterling and pinpoint cross from the Chelsea loanee to pick out Conor Chaplin to score a decisive late goal, almost cancelled out by an incredible from Wycombe keeper Ryan Allsop volley from a late corner.
https://sidewayssammy.com/2018/12/31/preview-wycombe-wanderers-7/
