VENUE #64 WYCOMBE WANDERERS Adams Park

SKY BET LEAGUE TWO

5th September 2015

Adams Park Stadium, High Wycombe

Ground Built:-  1990

Ground Capacity:-  10, 284

Kick Off:-  15:00

Entry Fee:-  £20

Programme:-  £3
                   
Ground # 64

WYCOMBE WANDERERS ... 2       HARTLEPOOL UTD ... 1

    Done the wrong thing today, while thinking of the hour and a half journey on the train I thought "I'll buy the Sun newspaper and do the sudoku's that will kill the time", but I got so engrossed with the Japanese puzzles that I lost track of where I was and what I was doing and so as I was finishing the third puzzle, (The Torture), just entering the last number I glanced up out of the window as the train was leaving the station and saw the sign High Wycombe and realised that I had missed my stop.  I ended up travelling to London Marylebone and catching the next train back to High Wycombe.  Arriving at the station at two minutes to three and with a 45 minute walk ahead of me as the ground is 2 and a half miles from the station I decided to jump into a taxi in the hope that I wouldn't miss too much of the first half.  Going through the industrial estate I saw the sign Adams Park at the very end of the road and so alighting the taxi minus a arm and a leg made my way to the ticket office to retrieve my pre-booked tickets and managed to get inside the ground for quarter past three, not too bad considering.

     These two sides have made a good start to the season with Wycombe in third place before kick off

and Hartlepool in sixth which is a sharp contrast to the season before when the Pools narrowly avoided dropping out of the football league and into the National league that was the conference.  Wycombe are continuing challenging for a top three place as they did last season when they were odds on favourites for automatic promotion but they only managed a play-off place finishing fourth and losing to Southend in the play-off final 7-6 on penalties.

     The game was already fifteen minutes gone when I took my seat in the main stand and looked

very lively, open with the ball rapidly travelling from end to end and I only had to wait eleven minutes for the first goal when a long ball played into the Hartlepool box for Michael Harriman to drill a first time shot inside the keepers nearside post.

     Just before half time and the scores were level when Carl Magnay played a one-two with Rakish

Wycombe celebrate second goal

Bingham and blasted the ball past Matt Ingham in the Wycombe goal from twelve yards.

     Eleven minutes inside the second half and it was two for Wycombe and Michael Harriman as a long ball was intercepted on the right and the QPR loanee looped a shot over Adam Bartlet in the Hartlepool goal into the far top corner of the net from eighteen yards.

     Hartlepool had obviously come to ruffle the Wycombe players feathers with some aggressive challenges and behaviour, the referee had a poor game and tended not to see a lot of what was going on on the pitch either intentionally or maybe he needs a trip to Specsavers but however he lost control of the game with his constant overlooking of incidents, the game was stopped at least a couple of times with players taking the law into their own

Fight breaks out after aggressive antics in goalmouth scramble 

hands and ending up in a brawl with half the players on the pitch getting involved.  In the 86th minute two Wycombe players were on the floor with the referee encouraging play to continue until the linesman brought it to his attention that Carl Magnay had decked Ryan Sellers, although initially he claims not to have seen the incident he red carded the Hartlepool goal scorer who abused Wycombe players verbally has he left the pitch.

     With the drum beating on the terraces encouraging the Wycombe fans to get behind their team the home players were quite happy with what they had got and tried to see out the game in the corners which brought more frustrated late challenges from the visitors and extended the injury time period but see it out they did and now Wycombe hold second place in the league two table.

        

     The Frank Adams stand is a two tiered fully covered affair which was built in the mid 90's.  It is a
much bigger stand than the other three with a capacity of 5,000 all seated fans and has a set of executive boxes situated between an upper and lower seating area.  The stand and ground are named after a former goalkeeper who donated to Wycombe their previous ground at Loakes Park.

   

 Opposite the Frank Adams stand is the main stand (Beachdean Stand) which has a raised seating area accessed by a small flight of stairs at the front.  It is single tiered and fully covered and has a large video screen in between it and the Dreams stand.  The stand is all seated with just under 1,300 seats and houses all main facilities such as food stalls, club shop and changing rooms.  Although the seated area is elevated the lower seats view is impeded by the dug outs for about a third of the near-side of the pitch.

     To the left of the Beachdean stand as you look toward the pitch is the Panache stand or Dreams stand as it was first named.  Originally a terrace when the ground opened in 1990 was converted into a stand six years later with just over a 2, 000 fully seated capacity.  Also fully covered the Panache is allocated to away supporters with a further 350 seats designated in the Beachdean stand if fan base requires.

   At the opposite end to the Panache stand is the Bucks New Uni Terrace AKA the Greene King IPA Terrace which is also fully covered and holds just under 2, 000 standing supporters.  The terrace exits at the same place as the main stand at the corner where the two meet and as you almost reach the gates there is a toilet which is very small but clean and modern, it was the only one I saw but I didn't get much chance to look around under the circumstances.


     Adams Park is a lovely looking, quite modern ground with very friendly and helpful staff.  The supporters are friendly and welcoming also and I must say that I've quite enjoyed my day out in Buckinghamshire apart from my blunder on the train coming that is.  My only real gripe is that I wish that the railway station was a lot closer to the ground.    

       

   
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