Wycombe Wondering

ARGYLE and Wycombe have locked horns in several big fixtures over recent years, and Pilgrims’ gaffer Derek Adams is looking forward to renewing the rivalry on Saturday at the stadium that bears his name – Adams Park.

“There’s been a lot of good games between Argyle and Wycombe,” said Derek. “It’s a good venue to go and play at, it’s a fantastic surface and we’ve got players who are high in confidence.”

While the clubs have contested some memorable and feisty games over recent years, Derek is fully-aware of the similarities between the two teams – not least that both managers are among the longest-serving in the Football League.

“He’s done a fantastic job there over a number of seasons that we’ve been against each other,” said Derek on his opposite number, Gareth Ainsworth. “It’s a difficult occupation, from time to time.

“There’s a lot of managers that don’t get a lot of time to deal with the situations. A lot of managers get high finance to have a quick fix and it doesn’t work out for them, or they move on. I think that Gareth has been very loyal to Wycombe Wanderers, and they’ve been very loyal to him.”

Argyle and The Chairboys have battled it out in both Sky Bet League Two and League One fixtures in recent times, with the highest-profile of these clashes coming in the League Two play-off semi-final in 2015. The Greens’ second-leg defeat turned out to the final game managed by Derek’s predecessor, John Sheridan.

Under Adams, Argyle are unbeaten in High Wycombe, and Derek is looking forward to the trip to Buckinghamshire.

“We enjoy going there, the surface is excellent and the atmosphere is very good as well, from both sets of supporters,” said Derek, who also revealed that Saturday’s opposition pipped him to a signing during pre-season.

“They have spent in the summer – we tried to get one of their players in the summer and they outbid us for a player. That’s the nature of football sometimes.

“They’ve done well, and managed to get themselves in a relatively good position at this moment in time, but we’re not far behind them, and we’re looking to try and catch them and go past them.

“We’ve got a five-game unbeaten run, four wins in that – and we’ve started the new year exceptionally well. We’ll be going into the weekend looking to try and get another victory.”

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