Southend United 0 Wycombe Wanderers 2

SkyBet League One, Saturday 13th April 2019

Adebayo Akinfenwa netted a second half brace as Wycombe Wanderers defeated Southend United at Roots Hall to pick up a massive three points in their fight against the drop in SkyBet League One.

This was a rather important game as the sides sat 21^st and 20^th in League One with the visitors just a point ahead of the bottom four at kick off, so The Blues knew a win would see them leapfrog their opponents and out of the bottom four, whilst The Chairboy’s knew a win would see them put daylight between themselves and the teams below.

Both teams were totally out of form though, hence they were both down in a relegation scrap, the hosts were winless in 13 games whilst Wanderers were on a five-game losing run, so neither side came into this big game with much confidence.

Unsurprisingly it was a nervy first half although the visitors probably shaded possession, and Akinfenwa did send a close-range header straight at Shrimpers keeper Nathan Bishop, however the first half ended goalless with little in much in the way of quality, and with the nerves from both sides still evident.

Half Time Southend United 0 Wycombe Wanderers 0

Wycombe though managed to take control after the break and broke the deadlock with around twenty minutes remaining when that man Akinfenwa, the recipient of some fun jibes from the home fans, converted Scott Kashket’s low cross from the left by netting a well-controlled finish across goal into the far corner.

The 700 odd visiting fans behind that goal were delirious and they knew how important that goal could be in the relegation battle, and four minutes later they were jumping for joy once again as Michael Harriman sent a long diagonal ball into the hosts area, and Akinfenwa managed to send a brilliant looping header back across goal and into the far corner, and you felt the win was pretty much sealed.

The majority of the 7,500 plus crowd inside the stadium were now turning on their side, and many now believe their team are down, even though they are only two points from safety with four games to go.  They do drop a place to 22^nd though as a result, and on this display Kevin Bond, along with help from his mate Harry Redknapp have plenty of work to do to pick this side up who are clearly low on confidence.

It’s also fourteen games without a win for the Blues too so it’s easy to see why many of the home fans have lost hope, but football is a funny game so you never know until it’s mathematically impossible.

For Wycombe it was a fabulous result, and ended a five-match losing run, and the three points takes them up three places to 17^th, and now three points above the drop zone, so still plenty of work to do, but this will give them plenty of heart going into their final four games of the season.

Full Time Southend United 0 Wycombe Wanderers 2