There's been a lot of talk recently about rivalries on here. Is it Luton or is it Bournemouth? Arguments back and forth, the self-proclaimed sharp knives say that Bournemouth fans would never act like the Luton ones, completely ignorant of recent trips to Boscombe. Nevertheless, one team seems to have been forgotten in all this. A team which geographically is only 12 (TWELVE) miles further than our most historic of rivals (as the crow flies). And that team has it's own hardcore element. The sort of element that strikes fear into the hearts of opposing fans and that team is (High) Wycombe Wanderers. THE TOWN High Wycombe has been long thought of as the 'meanest' market town in Buckingham, perhaps the UK. Back in the old days - anyone coming from outside of Wycombe to attempt to buy bread and cheese on market day was identified, dealt with and dumped at the town borders. You simply knew not to mess with the residents of Wycombe - especially on market day. In the 1800's, Queen Victoria visited the town and the residents put on a massive show with involved piling chairs in an arch shape across the High Street - celebrating their new found status as the capital of furniture production. The Queen was unimpressed, muttering 'FFS' under her breath. The residents mistakenly heard this as 'DFS' and the famous furniture brand was born. Another resident argued that she had actually said 'SCS' and the Furniture Wars began - and continue to this very day. (DFS, High Wycombe) In more recent times, the town has had some massive improvements. The Eden Shopping Centre was heavily invested in and was completed in 2008. There have been some upmarket shops open in revent times including M&S, Metro Bank, TK Maxx and *checks notes* Techhouse Accessories. Sadly, the Hollywood Bowl - an anchor tenant on opening has closed with a venue called 'Bowling' replacing it. (Eden Shopping Centre during the Great Time Slowage, 2020) Other huge improvements to the town include the opening of a Sainsburys in 2009 - in which the town's residents celebrated by throwing massive street parties which led to the infamous 'Great Wycombe Cocktail Sausage Shortage' of 2009 in which the street parties turned to riots and the evil 'Wycombe Massive' were formed and they quickly subjugated the Oxford Road and many surrounding areas. (Wycombe Cocktail Sausage Riots, Day 32) A huge depression followed and the town took many years to get back on its feet. Once this happened, a hotel and bus station were built commemorating the hardships that followed the Cocktail Sausage years. (Wycombe Bus Station) FAMOUS RESIDENTS Amongst the famous former residents of Wycombe is hilarious comedian James Corden. A firm favourite of the Politics forum members on WFCForums.com. Now inexplicably a big star in America, James lived here for a while when he was only known for being a hugely unfunny fat lad in Gavin & Stacey. Which I've never watched and I never will. (James Corden with former Watford left back Daniel Pudil) Closer to home, Leigh-Anne Pinnock - fiance of Watford legend Andre Gray and member of band *checks notes* Sugar Girls Mix - was born in High Wycombe. Many arguments ensue in the Gray household as to who's favourite team are Watford's biggest rivals - Wycombe or Luton. HOME TEAM (Wycombe Manager Gareth Ainsworth) Wycombe have had a tough start to life in the Championship losing all 7 games and only scoring 2 goals. Their manager Gareth Ainsworth has stated that he doesn't feel like his side have got many decisions and that the refereeing performances have been like 'poison running through your veins, poison. I don't want to break this chain'. With no points and few goals - expect a Wycombe win tomorrow night. Wycombe's star player is obviously Adebayo Akinfenwa. Well, I assume he is as I don't know any of the other players as I couldn't be bothered to research. Oh.....that's what it's like. Anyway, Akinfenwa is famous for his 'beast mode' motto in which he 'beasts' opposition players. He seems very much the bit part player now though - making sporadic substitute appearances as well as expanding his media duties with regular slots on Sky's coverage and Soccer AM. I'm assuming he'll get a job on Talksport at some point soon. Former Hornet star Uche Ikpeazu may make an appearance on Tuesday. Ikpeazu famously turned down a professional contract from Reading to sign for Watford after scoring 28 goals in 28 games for the Under 18s. Watford paid a big fee following a tribunal and Ikpeazu went on to play no games for the Hornets. Money well spent as ever. Ikpeazu swanned off to Scotland for a while before signing for Wycombe. THE AWAY TEAM (COG View) It's been an amazing start to the season under new coach Vladimir Ivic. With so many players out and justifiably moved on to either cover the losses from our relegation or protect them from the evil Championship and teams like Wycombe. The fact that Ivic has got us up to third is a miracle in itself and just wait til Hughes, Gray and Success are back. We will walk this league in the end and despite the completely undeserved (despite the stats saying completely otherwise) last minute equaliser from Bournemouth the other day, we will no doubt rise high in this league and easily easily easily get more points than Wolves did that time. Let the bedwetters wet the bed again! Haven't even heard of Wybird United or whatever. Ivic LOVES a 1-0. I hate Troy Deeney. THE AWAY TEAM (Bedwetter View) The club is falling apart. We've sold all our best players including ones we tried to force to play for us by using advanced coercion techniques. We've had to loan all our players out to try and save the club - players who have got us promoted by no-one else wanted. We haven't even got a left back and keep playing a formation the coach doesn't even know and playing wingers as strikers. We have injuries everywhere and can't score goals. We've been given Udinese castoffs and they aren't even in the league of the Abdi era signings. We can't make chances and other teams have massive possession against us. All we do is hoof it to Joao Pedro who's 4ft7. Wycombe haven't got a point yet but I bet they beat us. It would be so Watfordy. Pozzo Out! I hate Troy Deeney. LIKELY TEAM Foster; Robinson, Millen, Sierralta, Escortlta, Femenia; Chalobah, Bangura, Johnson, Deeney, Gray, Joao Pedro, Richarlison (5-3-4)
Possibly best match preview ever. Obviously furlough is leaving GD with time to hone his creative juices (to mix metaphors).
After a chaotic few league games it will be a nice change of pace to have a cup game against lower league opposition such as this. Expect wholesale changes with a smattering of U18s none of us have heard of. Wycombe lack the firepower of Oxford or Newport who we faced in previous rounds so if the young players stick to their tasks I'm confident we can avoid this potential banana skin. Prediction Wycombe 0-2 Watford Stevenson (32), Sierralta (78), Deeney (sent off 90+2)
I heard they will be renaming their town Low Wycombe, in honour of their league placement. Having said that, Wycombe have lost all 7 games so far. This trend will not continue and it's usually Watford who catches the cold. For that reason alone, I cannot see us winning.
Well I missed the muff game (was following on phone , but no idea how we played) so looking forward to this , time to add some goals so HW 0 Watford 3 for the love of God somebody tell me what COG stands for
It is the type of game that we often end up losing, I have seen it so many times before. Having said this I don't think Vladimir will let the lads take it easy and the late equaliser the other day will more than likely be hurting the players. On paper we should be looking at picking up 6 points from our next two fixtures, the teams around us are playing each other so this is a good opportunity for us. Wycombe have lost all of their games but have not been easy to beat their last 3 games have been against teams inside the top 7 and they have only been beaten by a one goal margin in each of these games. This could be the perfect game to make some rotation. I do think that we will be too good defensively for them but it just depends whether we can create and be more clinical going forward. Foster Ngakia Cathcart Wilmot Kabasele Kiko Capoue Chalobah Quina Joao Pedro Murray
Last season we were the first to beat the team that had won all their previous games. This season we'll pay for that by being the first to be beaten by a team that has lost all it's games.
My team for this game: Foster Kiko, Ngakia, Cathcart, Kabasele, Troost-Ekong, Sierralta, Wilmot, Sema Chalobah, Capoue Guarantee we wont lose. Attacking threat provided by Capoue playing balls in behind their defence to our attackers.
Uche Ikpeazu nailed on to score. Another gem our scouting network identified: BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) Tweeted: 'He gets himself in a bit of a fankle' - Ah Uche. https://t.co/v61IZxg7m8 https://twitter.com/BBCSportScot/status/1224339395723059200?s=20
How can you mock our scouting system for picking up Uche? We got him for next to nothing loaned him out to Crewe, Doncaster, Port Vale and Blackpool. That's £1m a pop! Huge profit!
I live in Beaconsfield, just down the road from High Wycombe. Better keep my head down and my wits about me tomorrow night when I pop down to Waitrose. Neutral colours only, I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure Wycombe fans will still be looking for revenge, following our 1-0 AET trouncing of them in the 2012 league cup.
Nailed on to draw/lose this to a set piece goal. Their one strength is probably the only slight defensive weakness we've shown so far this season.
Fact: it's called High Wycombe as it was the UK's centre of drug production and use for decades. It was a no go area for the police due to the sheer number of men, women and children jacked up on anything they could pump into their veins.
Child Of God All Watfordy COGs pray for a win every game - we’re in good hands and will win the league.
https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ndre-gray-will-hughes-back-wycombe-wanderers/ Gray and Hughes available for selection but looks like Perica's injury isn't great and may require surgery. Based on his comments (and his treatment of other returning players, such as Capoue), it would be a shock for either of them to start, but you'd think they'd both be in the squad. Ivic seems to be employing a very careful rotation, with three players or so resting every game, which means that generally each outfielder will play 2 out of 3 games so we can probably extrapolate from that and get pretty close to understanding who might be rested tomorrow night. By this logic, Sarr, Sema, Kabasele and Chalobah are due a rest. Cleverley has started the last three in a row, but has come off after an hour in the last two. Troost-Ekong said he had a slight hamstring pull v Bournemouth, so he too may be rested out of caution. Think we might see a first appearance for Sierrelta if so. Foster Wilmot Sierrelta? Cathcart Femenia Capoue Garner Quina Ngakia Pedro ? (Sarr/Murray/Sema) Bench: Bachmann Kabasele Sema Hughes Chalobah Sarr/Murray Gray
"Sausage?" "SAUSAGE?!" Was this the game when their forward Keith Scott missed from the length of a cocktail sausage from the goal? Many years ago "in Pangbourne".
Must win game. High Honeycombe 1 (Essendoh) WFC 0 (Deeney missed pens 18, 65, 90+3) WFC 89% possession, 4 shots.
Hughes & Gray are available according to the Wobby for tomorrow night but Deeney is not, as for Perica it is possible he might need an operation though hopefully he won't. However, the article also says that it is unlikely that Hughes or Gray will start because although they are now back in training they might not be quite ready to actually start a match yet, having said that I wonder if they might make a cameo appearance late on? We shall just have to wait and see.
I don't imagine Hughes will be rushed back, after all, we've got Capoue (Etienne Capoue!) coming back into the team which makes us much stronger. Gray on the other hand, it's a bit of a dilemma, if Perica needs surgery, he'll be out for a while, and if Deeney isn't around yet, we might be forced to use him soon (though I imagine not from the start tomorrow as you say)
GD at his Happy Clapping finest. Great preview sir, loved it. As for the game, we should win. We should win with ease, and only letting in three so far will mean our defense should have too much. This is us though. Not won a game? Play Watford. Need a morale boosting performance? Play Watford. I hope to god Ivic has managed to instill the winning mentality and not to lose focus. We should win. Have we learnt from our mistakes of the past against lower sides? Prove this score line wrong boys Wycombe 2 Watford 0.