A wet, dark journey south was more than compensated for by a hectic game that ended 3-3, but in all honesty it could have been 10-2 in our favour before the added nine minutes, necessitated by an injury to Evans. A second consecutive hat-trick - the first I can recall by a Sunderland player - from Ross Stewart was cancelled out by the first hitting the bar and going in off the keeper. It should really have brought us three points, but one point's well worth having. Covid had reduced our squad, meaning loan recalls for Patterson, Diamond, and Hawkes, when we could have easily "pulled a magpie" and had it postponed (but with good reason, unlike them up the road) but we went ahead. That's what your squad's for.
Patterson
Winchester Doyle Flanagan Cirkin
Gooch Evans(c) Embleton Neil
Pritchard Stewart
We kicked off, with Pritch getting things underway, away from the massed ranks of the Red and White army. The home side came at us, but we soaked it up and fashioned an early break, Stewart got it out to the left and somehow got to the back post to be on the end of Cirkin's cross and plant his header home off the underside of the bar and the keeper's arse. Or legs - who cares? Nice one, Ross, and it felt great to be ahead after only three minutes.
We persisted with playing it out from the back, with Doyle overdoing it out on the left, and this invited the Chairboys onto us. Thirteen minutes in, and we stood off them to allow a low shot from the edge of the box that took a slight deflection and skidded beyond Pato's outstretched right hand into the corner for the leveller. More Wycombe pressure followed, interspersed with Pritch-inspired Sunderland attacks.
We defended well, led by Flan, but when a corner came in from our right, there was all sorts of pulling and pushing before Vokes forced it over the line. VAR would have confirmed a mistake by the ref in not spotting the offence(s), but this is League One, and if the fourth official can't see Ainsworth on the touchline, we can't expect the ref to see fouls.
That was on 36 minutes, and it sparked us into more positivity going forward. Three minutes later, a low Embleton cross from the left found Stewart again, this time near the front post, and he knocked it in to even things up.
That put us fans in a good mood for the interval, which arrived after two added minutes. Wycombe had probably been slightly the better side, but had seen most of their attacks flounder on the rock that is Flan.
There were no changes in personnel for the second half, but there was in our style. We dispensed with playing it out from the back in favour of the Wycombe method of getting it at least to halfway in one go from goal kicks. We started at a furious pace and could have had three goals in the opening ten minutes of the half. Shots were blocked, saved, or knocked just wide, and we were inches -nay, millimetres - from getting on the end of clever through balls and crosses. Gooch chose to cross when a blast, from an admittedly narrow angle, would have been a better option. One rebound was headed by a diving Stewart towards the far corner, but somehow Jacobson got his head to it and glanced it wide.
Pritch and Embo took turns with the corners, but the home goal led a charmed life and somehow remained intact. With about ten to go, Wycombe launched one over the top, and Pato came flying to the edge of the box to clear the bouncing ball - brave keeping, but Evans went down, sparked out cold. By the time he departed in a stretcher he was moving his legs, but a good seven minutes had passed.
On came Diamond, with Embo taking up the holding midfield role. Young Jack was a livewire down the left, winning more corners and getting in crosses, as we went for our third. Embo got on the end of a right-wing move, and carried it to the edge of the box, from where he curled a left-footer past the keeper - but it smacked against the woodwork at the far post and bounced away. Stewart left his marker for dead in the box to get onto another clever ball in, but he scooped his sidefooted volley over the bar.
There was a fair bit of good-natured banter with home keeper Stockdale, which is always nice to see. He's not really that chunky anyway, especially when compared to Akinfenwe, who was warming up. Football's biggest chest duly replaced Vokes on 88, then nine (9) added minutes were announced.
Three of them had passed with us pressing at every opportunity when Gooch got the ball, and threaded it into the right-hand side of the box for Stewart to chase. The LND duly got there first, and clipped a right-footer across Stockdale. It seemed to take an eternity to bobble along the deck towards the far post, and seemed destined to hit it, but it didn't, and with one final, gasping, little bounce, rolled just inside the post. Boom! Get in you beauty! I've not felt like that about a goal for a long time, and had to have a sit down, head in hands, once the mayhem had subsided. And breathe. Marvellous stuff.
Wycombe hoyed on another forward at the expense of a defender (Horgan for scorer Mehmeti) as they tried to rescue a point. For the next five minutes, we defended like demons, as did the home side, but in the last minute we conceded a corner. With the box crowded with bodies, we couldn't clear it properly and Jacobson managed to force it over the line.
What a killer, what a bugger, and we barely had time to restart when the whistle went to end a frantic game. Nine of our twenty-one shots had been on target, we'd had ten corners, and could have been out of sight before the hour. A canny bit of entertainment for the telly.
Ainsworth, for all his workie-ticketness during the game, came to our end and shook hands with every Sunderland player, having a lengthy chat with Stewart. Nice to see
Balls out of the ground three (one by Flan, two by Wycombe), most Red Kites in view at once, six.
Man of the Match? Had Stewart's header not been given as an OG, the hat trick would have won him my vote. However, and despite us attacking like nobody's business in the second half, a superb first half defensive display by Flan would have got him the nod if I hadn't just seen the replay of our first goal. It's Stewart's all day long, so he's my choice.
