Wycombe boss: We could have got five goals against Charlton – it wouldn’t have been an injustice

Gareth Ainsworth reckoned his Wycombe Wanderers side could have scored “three, four or five goals” in today’s victory over Charlton Athletic.

Sam Lavelle’s first goal since his transfer deadline day move from Morecambe gave the Addicks’ late hope of salvaging something from the match in Buckinghamshire. But the 2-1 reverse saw Charlton slump to 23rd in the League One standings.

Ainsworth was quick to praise Addicks manager Nigel Adkins after the contest.

“He is a super manager,” said the Wycombe boss. “He has managed at the top level and been promoted to the top level. And he is a great guy….a real great guy who has got great values and manages his team well.

“Don’t be surprised when Charlton start climbing the table, because he’ll get that group together. They are a very young group and a new group. The Charlton of old needs to be dropped now because they’ve got this new influx of players. We wanted to make sure they didn’t create any identity today. We made sure we stepped on them and made sure they didn’t have any possession in the first half. When they did go long it was important to win the second balls, which our two midfielders were outstanding at.

“Everyone had their jobs and knew their jobs. Everyone bills us as this long-ball team and set-plays, keep billing us at that because we know what we’re doing. We train really hard on that quality around the box. You need some individual brilliance and that came from Garath McCleary. It’s a fantastic finish. He’s got that, he’s played at the top level.

“It was tough at the end – they threw the kitchen sink at us. But teams are going to do that. You see that in all leagues around the world. I’m proud we hung on but I want everyone to remember the 93 minutes before that of the good play Wycombe had – because we could’ve had three, four or five goals today and it wouldn’t have been an injustice.”