For the past two seasons Wycombe have been the ultimate throw-away artists. In both seasons they looked nailed on for promotion and then it all just started to go wrong for them. For a long time in the 2005/6 season it appeared that they were doing their best to go the entire League season undefeated, succeeding in that quest until the 22^nd game of their season, an away game against Bury just 8 days before Christmas. You can say what you want about Wycombe but that is an impressive run no matter how you put it.

When the game against Bury came around they were 7 points clear of 4^th placed Leyton Orient. They appeared to still be nailed on for automatic promotion though until a run of just 3 wins in 16 games suddenly saw them nervously looking over their shoulders and they had to settle for 6^th place. A 2-1 aggregate defeat to Cheltenham ended their challenge that year.

The beginning of last season saw them winning 7 of their first 9 games and they were comfortably at the top of the table, but then a 3-1 defeat at home to the Imps seemed to turn their season around and they quickly fell away from the automatic promotion chase but were still in the chase for a playoff place, eventually those dreams ended with a run of 11 games without a win at the end of the season, losing their last 4 games.

However, despite these bad runs it was still obvious that Wycombe had a decent side and they travelled to Stamford Bridge in the Semi Finals of the Carling Cup, and a 4-0 win for Chelsea seriously flattered the then Premiership Champions as Wycombe played extremely well that night.

Now, I’m not to going to lie and all Wycombe fans would know I was lying if I said I liked Wycombe, but I am prepared to admit that they generally have a squad that could be capable of a playoff place and the fact they’ve managed to keep hold of Jermaine Easter (for now anyway) shows the ambition of the club. It was important that they kept hold of Easter after Mooney left for Walsall earlier in the season.

They’ve replaced Mooney with Fola Onibuje, a striker who impressed many whilst playing for Swindon last season. Easter, Onibuje and Scott McGleish are a formidable strikeforce to say the least but Wycombe’s problem has never really been scoring goals, it’s been keeping them out.

I must say I am personally quite puzzled that they’ve brought Scott Shearer into their club, obviously I can only go on when I’ve seen him play but he seems like a goalkeeper who is a bit of a liability. Infact, in the 2005/6 season when the Imps travelled to Bristol Rovers, the Gas fans were ironically cheering whenever he caught the ball because apparantly he can only catch one out of every 10 crosses.

As I said, Wycombe’s squad is certainly one capable of challenge for promotion, but they seem to have major confidence problems once they’ve been defeated and that could inevitably be their downfall again this season. One they get on a bad run of form they never seem able to get out of it and for this reason I am predicting them to finish 14th.

Do you agree with this or do you think Wycombe will be able to maintain a decent promotion push this season? Either way post your opinion below.

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