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Wycombe Wanderers one and only competitive game against Spurs was another FA Cup Fourth Round game on January 28th 2017. The match was played in our former White Hart Lane Stadium and whilst Spurs made it through to the fifth round (and ultimately the semi-final) the glory belonged to the “Chairboys” who were then in League Two. Managed then, as now by former player Gareth Ainsworth, Wycombe so nearly pulled off one of the big FA Cup shocks. They had a 2-0 half-time lead thanks to Paul Hayes who scored both goals, one of which was from the penalty spot.

Heung-min Son and Vincent Janssen (who also scored a penalty) drew the scores level with goals in the 60th and 64th minute but in a mad finish Wycombe went 3-2 up in the 83rd minute through Garry Thompson before Dele Alli made it 3-3 with just a minute of ordinary time to go. There were 6 minutes of added time indicated, but “Sonny”’s dramatic winner was timed in the seventh minute of added time.

Ainsworth’s side were applauded by home and away fans. Bear in mind that Spurs were second at the time, and that they finished Premier League runners-up for the first time in 54 years and you have a sense of what Wycombe nearly achieved.

Cult figure Adebayo Akinfenwa started that game against Spurs, and at the age of 38 is still in Wycombe’s squad. He’s taken part in 19 of Wycombe’s championship games, starting 10 and coming off the bench in 9 of those games, and has played over 1,000 minutes, without scoring this season. Akinfenwa played a part in the Wanderers’ League One play-off campaign last year and I recall his exuberance after the final in which his team beat Oxford United 2-1. League One positions had been decided on a points per game basis and Wanderers finished third, just above Oxford.

In the 2016-17 season, the Wanderers had started their FA Cup campaign in the first round and beat Portsmouth, Chesterfield (my local club nowadays) and non-league Stourbridge. This season, for the first time, their campaign began in the Third Round as they were promoted last year for the very first time to The Championship. Wycombe’s Third Round victims were none other than Preston North End, also previous “Double” winners, albeit in the 19th Century. Preston are having a patchy season, but they are still a top half side. Wycombe are bottom of the Championship, behind even Sheffield Wednesday who had points deducted at the start of the season.

When Wycombe were promoted to the Football League as Conference Champions in 1993, they were managed by Martin O’Neill, who led them to another promotion at the end of their first Football League season when their victims were – Preston North End! O’Neill ultimately moved to a higher plane of course, but two former Spurs players had spells as manager of “The Chairboys”. Those were John Gorman from 2004-06, after he had been Glenn Hoddle’s assistant at Tottenham and Peter Taylor. See the preview for our last meeting where you can find more on Wycombe Wanderers’ history.

This game will be played at Adams Park, where we have played before, but in friendlies, not in a competitive game. I remember attending the games in 2001 and 2003. In 2001 we sent a strong side and won 2-1 with goals by Teddy Sheringham (after his return from Manchester United) and Steffen Iversen. In 2003 we won 3-2 with goals by Helder Postiga and Simon Davies supplemented by a Dave Beasant own goal.

Wycombe haven’t played since their FA Cup success against Preston, due to the presence in the squad of the Coronavirus, but they are back in training, so it looks as if the last game of this Fourth Round weekend will go ahead. The game kicks off at 7.45pm and is being broadcast live on BT SPORTS.

Left back Joe Jacobsen has made 249 Championship appearances for Wycombe and is their penalty-taker, having scored three goals from the spot this season. The only player ahead of him in the goal-scoring stakes is midfielder Scott Kashket, born in Chigwell (formerly Spurs’ training territory). Kashket has four league goals but hasn’t scored since early December. Wycombe’s goals against Preston were scored by Fred Onyedinma, Jacobsen (penalty), defender Josh Knight (on loan from Leicester) and striker Alex Samuel.

With a crunch Premier League game coming up against Liverpool on Thursday, Jose Mourinho’s team selection will no doubt be stronger than that which beat Marine 5-0, but one which I am sure will see changes from our last game at Bramall Lane. Lo Celso remains a definite absentee and Jose is monitoring the fitness of Matt Doherty, Dele Alli and Serge Aurier over the weekend. Those three have “small problems”. I think we will see a convincing win, and perhaps Gareth Bale will be among our scorers.

Tomorrow’s match referee will be Jon Moss. Once again, I find myself surprised that in our 24th domestic game of this season we are meeting this referee for the first time. This will be this referee’s 30th game in the middle with Spurs. His first Spurs match was at Wigan in September 2011 when Gareth Bale was one of our scorers in a 2-1 win. Mr. Moss’s last two games in charge of Spurs were our last game before lockdown (Burnley away) and our first game after lockdown (Manchester United home). Both those games were drawn.

Last week Mr. Moss was in charge of the Manchester City v Aston Villa game which featured a controversial first goal for City after Rodri had come back from an offside position before Tyrone Mings apparently “played the ball” to the man who then gave the pass for Bernardo Silva to score. Mr. Moss will not be assisted by VAR at Adams Park.

The reward for victory in this tie will be an away Fifth Round tie against either Everton or Sheffield Wednesday.

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