The Big Match: Wycombe Wanderers F.C. vs Lincoln City F.C.

Kick Off 15.00 BST 7th September 2019 Sky Bet League 1

Location: Adams Park, High Wycombe

With international break in full swing we look to: The Chairboys vs The Imps, League 1’s 2nd vs 5th, which 4 years ago would have delighted both sets of fans, not because they are playing each other but simply that they occupy 2nd and 5th in the English 3rd tier. Unlucky or arguably Lucky 13th place finish for both Wycombe and Lincoln in League 2 and the National League respectively in the 2015/16 season gave a meagre outlook for both clubs’ futures. Gareth Ainsworth was managing Wycombe for his third year whilst Lincoln were just appointing the Cowley brothers, arguably their best decision of the decade. Danny Cowley saw his Imps side rise to 1st in the National League the following season securing their football league status for the first time in 6 seasons.

Both managers are being noticed by clubs in and around the second tier of English football with Cowley this week being linked with the Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday job. Ainsworth has previously been named in the hunt for the Reading and QPR managers position. Both teams will be looking to put their names amongst promotion candidates this season after a solid start from both sides. Both have added depth to their squad this summer with a number of new signings, notably Rolando Aarons from Newcastle to Wycombe on loan, Nnamdi Ofoborh from Bournemouth to Wycombe on loan and Tyler Walker on loan from Nottingham Forest to Lincoln already notching 4 goals for the club.

Wycombe are yet to be beaten this season, with 3 wins and 3 draws to their name so far this season, whilst Lincoln have been beaten twice however have won 1 more game than Wycombe, only goal difference separating the sides in the table. Wycombe will be wanting to keep their unbeaten run going whilst Lincoln will want to improve their away record with both of their losses coming away from home. This has the outlook of a thrilling game with both sides capable of scoring.

Prediction: Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Lincoln City (Although Wycombe have got off to a great start, Lincoln have a great player in Tyler Walker. Wycombe do not know when they are beaten at home however coming from 1-3 down to win 4-3 against Southend, and after taking the lead twice against MK Dons scoring a 90th minute winner after having been pegged back twice so this is by no means an easy task for Danny Cowley’s men).

Potential talking points: Lincoln City look for new manager after Sheffield Wednesday appoint Danny Cowley as new boss, Wycombe go top of League 1 after going 7 games unbeaten, Tyler Walker becomes League 1 current League 1 top scorer, Aarons and Ofoborh link up to give Wycombe big 3 points, Wycombe and Lincoln suffer stalemate after both sides fail to take chances.

Match Preview: Derby County vs West Bromwich Albion

Kick-Off: 24th Aug 2019 12.30 BST

Location: Pride Park Stadium Sky Bet Championship

You wouldn’t be too surprised if on May 25th 2020 both of these teams will be battling it out at Wembley for a place in the Premier League. Both teams will be expecting a healthy season at the top end of the Championship building on last seasons Play-Off finish, with Derby losing 2-1 against Aston Villa in the final.

Derby County were dealt a massive blow at the start of the season with manager Frank Lampard leaving the club to manage his beloved Chelsea in the Premier League. Negativity didn’t fester for long however with the announcement of Phillip Cocu as County’s new manager. Cocu who previously managed PSV and Fenerbahce adds a wealth of experience to the Rams’. The former Barcelona midfielder is hoping to take Derby to the Premier League for the first time since 2007/08 where they achieved an unwanted record for the least number of points achieved by a Premier League team in a single season (11). Derby fans’ will be keen to put that record behind them and hit the heights of the 1998/99 season where they finished 8th, their highest ever Premier League finish.

The start of the season however hasn’t been as successful as hoped with Derby only picking up 5 points out of a possible 12. Fortunes have been slightly better for West Brom who have picked up 8 points from 12, putting them in 6th position 8 places higher than their opponents who sit in 14th.

West Brom who are currently unbeaten in the Championship this season have high hopes of their manager Slaven Bilić, who was appointed in June 2019. Bilić who had an unsuccessful reign as Al-Ittihad manager is looking to revamp his managerial career by getting the Baggies back to the Premier League in their second season out of the big time.

The match is due to be a thrilling encounter with both teams looking to get all 3 points to kickstart their season.

Key Players to watch out for:

Grady Diangana (scored a brace against Luton Town), Tom Lawrence (Scored a brace against Huddersfield on the first day of the season)

Potential talking points:

West Brom go top of the table, Derby pick up first win at home this season, West Brom earn first clean sheet of the season, Derby extend winning run against West Brom to 4 games, Austin scores first goal for West Brom.

Prediction: 2-1 Win for Derby

Match Preview: Cardiff City vs West Ham United

First match out of the hat is relegation threatened Cardiff City vs mid table West Ham United.

Cardiff City Last 5: WWLLL West Ham United Last 5: DDWLW

I think it’s fair to say that Neil Warnock and the bluebird fans will be underwhelmed at what they have endured in their first season back in the Premier League. In just 29 games this season Cardiff have conceded 57 goals an average of almost 2 goals per game only scoring 25, less than 1 goal per game. West Ham will be understandably more hopeful going in to this fixture having lost just once in their last 5 games.

Cardiff have only beaten West Ham twice in their last 23 meetings, the last win coming in an opening day championship clash at the start of the 2011-12 season, in which West Ham won promotion through the Play-offs beating Cardiff 5-0 on aggregate in the Play-off semi-final. West Ham have won the previous 7 match-ups between the two sides.

The injury to Sol Bamba couldn’t have come at a worse time for Cardiff, the veteran Centre-Back is the Bluebirds’ joint top scorer along with Bobby Reid and Callum Paterson. Bamba a key man in defence, boasting the most tackles, clearances and interceptions of any Cardiff player, will be out for the rest of the season suffering an ACL injury. One stat Bamba will hope to shake off is he is also the player with the most errors leading to goals (3). Fans have been quite critical of fellow defender and club captain Sean Morrison since his return to the squad after a period of absence due to a burst appendix. Morrison hasn’t been in a winning side since December 29th 2018, in a 1-0 win over Leicester City.

Fortunes are much different for West Ham United having scored 37 goals this season (just over 1 goal a game) and letting in 41 (just shy of 1.5 goals a game). The Hammers top scorer this season is Felipe Anderson having scored 8 goals closely followed by Marko Arnautovic who has 7 goals to his name. West Ham have scored 20 of their 37 goals in the second half whilst Cardiff have conceded 32 of their 57 goals in the second half so this could be a pinnacle point of the game (good news for late arrivers), and potentially the season for Cardiff who sit two points away from safety. West Ham also have some injury worries with Yarmolenko (achilles) and Wilshere (ankle) sidelined for the foreseeable, alongside Cresswell (taken off as a precaution for clash of heads, unsure if he will be ready in time), Ben Johnson (calf), Balbuena (knee – could be fit for the game against Cardiff), Winston Reid (knee) and Carlos Sanchez (knee).

Callum Patterson, joint top scorer (for Cardiff) looks a vital part in this game having won more aerial battles (201) than any other player in the Premier League this season however he has been out of favour with Neil Warnock in the last couple of games. Manuel Pellegrini looks set to play hot young prospect Declan Rice after he scored against Newcastle last week, heading in from a Snodgrass cross. Rice has been named MOTM in 2 out of the last 3 games.

Predictions

This is a hard game to predict, West Ham have been quite inconsistent this season losing and drawing to Brighton and failing to be Leicester but also beating the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal whilst drawing to Liverpool. Cardiff have caused a couple of surprises this season beating high-flying Wolves and AFC Bournemouth. Cardiff have the home advantage however the fans can be quick to turn if the match isn’t flowing the way of the home side which can go against them.

Based on the fact that Cardiff are missing their key man Sol Bamba, and the low levels of confidence that has been clearly shown recently I think Cardiff will struggle in this game. Cardiff need to win this game to have any real hope of staying up having yet to play Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool and Man United. Fellow strugglers Southampton arguably have an easier run of games, having to play only Tottenham and Liverpool from the top 6. If Cardiff do win this then their fate could rest in their own hands, if they don’t they could be reliant on the teams above them.

My Prediction: Cardiff City 1-2 West Ham United

Good luck to both teams for the rest of the season.

Welcome to MatchReport

Hello readers,

I’d like to welcome you to my blog ‘MatchReport’. The purpose of this blog is to talk everything football, whether it’s about the Premier League, Ligue 1 or the WSL. Football is football whether you are male, female, gay, straight, black, white, whatever your identity, football should be accessible to anyone and I hope that whoever you are, you feel welcome here and enjoy reading about football.

Each week I will be putting matches in the hat and pulling out teams, to create match previews and season analysis on the teams selected. I aim to also talk about some of the football news that has slipped under the radar each week. From retro kits, to away day banter, anything that is football related, could be talked about. 

I have been a football fan most of my life and consider myself an unfortunate Reading fan but also dabble in the fortunes of other teams. You can hardly call me a glory supporter when you see the teams I follow and they all have reasons, you’ll have to decide if they are good reasons or not: Reading (Moved to Reading aged 14 and they became my local team), Liverpool (Wife and brother-in-law are big Liverpool fans and they converted me from a lifelong Manchester United supporter), Southampton (I don’t claim to support the Saints however I do enjoy watching them play at the St Mary’s, and there’s something special about singing “When the Saints go marching in…” in amongst the Southampton faithful), Bristol City & Bristol Rovers (I was born in Bristol and my family was split, so I took an interest in both sides of the city, but if I had to choose I’d be on the red side of Bristol, sorry Gasheads), Plymouth Argyle (lived in Cornwall for 3 years and Argyle was my local team, they were my first professional match I saw live vs Sunderland, losing 2-0 to Roy Keane’s Black Cats in the Coca-Cola Championship. I didn’t actually see Argyle win until about 8 years later in a 2-1 away win at Kenilworth Road vs Luton), Wycombe (Again more of a follower or admirer than a supporter having only seen them play on 3 occasions), Napoli (Went there for our honeymoon and the people of Napoli are always in my heart, they are all very lovely people and their passion for football is right up there with the best), Forest Green Rovers (Never seen them play but I’m vegan and so would love to try some of their food at a game), Dortmund (fell in love with their love for football after the Champions League Final vs Bayern Munich, Klopp what a guy!!!), Ajax (I went on a stadium tour of the Johan Cruyff Arena when on holiday in Amsterdam and the passion for football and the history behind the club made me fall in love with them, plus their style of football is so unique) I have also gone to support Hungerford Town at Bulpit Lane in the National League South as well as Reading City at the Rivermoor in Reading.

I’m also a huge supporter of the Women’s game and have met most of England’s top players. I support Reading Women and travel to Adams Park to watch most of their games. My favourite women’s players are Rachel Furness and Lauren Bruton.

I hope that this blog will give people some interesting reading on their way to work or even on the train to an away day. I’d love feedback about my posts, so get in contact via the contact part of the website and I’ll try and get back to you, even if you want to rib me about the 100 teams I support! 

Thank you for reading and please give this a share when you’re done.

Will.

P.S If you support anyone other than Reading then congratulations on your victory against us at the Madejski.