Another one of those games that demonstrates how much we need a 30-goal-a-season striker in January,

Firstly, let me begin by apologising for the missing Viewpoint after the win over Peterborough. I had been struggling with illness last week and it slipped me by. I wanted to pass a brief comment on that game here as well.

Town went into that game, a team we usually struggle against, on the back of a disappointing draw with Fleetwood. It became a must-win game to ensure we clung on to the top two spaces. It ended up being a fantastic performance from Town with two excellently worked goals with Conor Chaplin at the double.

With slip-ups by both Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday, Town moved into top spot, putting themselves in prime position for that important Christmas number one position. It gave us a great opportunity to further cement that away at Wycombe. A team whose form of late has drastically improved and who are always a tough nut to crack.

I went into this game full of belief that we would beat them. With the possession we would have we could stop them getting out and swinging lots of long balls into our box. We managed that well for the most part. What we couldn't afford to do is give Wycombe an opportunity to impose their time wasting tactics before the half-time interval, and that's what we did.

It was the a very unWycombe-like goal. They must do something right under Gareth Ainsworth, but they are a horrible team to watch and play against. However, their goal, whilst it could have been defended better, actually showed a good bit of skill and finish from Brandon Hanlan.

The run was very good, but he got through too easily. Cameron Humphreys was a little too weak in the challenge. He needs to learn from Sam Morsy more in that area. Had Morsy been the one standing Hanlan up then I am certain they would not have gone on to score.

Once he was in the box, Humphreys then couldn't and rightly didn't force a tackle from behind. Cam Burgess then needed to do better in that position. He chased the player and no the ball which opened the space for Hanlan to score.

In terms of attacking play, that was about it from Wycombe. Memories of Lincoln and Cheltenham flooded back as Town knocked and knocked on the door, but without ever really troubling the goalkeeper.

The best chance had to come just before they scored with Kayden Jackson neatly flicking the ball into an on-running Morsy. Rather than taking it himself he rolled it into Chaplin. There aren't many other players you would want running onto a clean shot on the edge of the box with his left foot than Chaplin, but he got it all wrong and scuffed it straight into the goalkeeper.

Time after time, Town's final ball was missing, It wasn't just Royal Mail on strike, but Town's deliveries seemed to take a day off as well.

There were two strong shouts for a penalty in the game. The second on Freddie Ladapo was a stonewall foul for me. It's possible it was just outside the box, it was hard to see from the replays, but Town got nothing.

The most frustrating thing from the officials was the lack of added time and yellows for time-wasting. Wycombe seemingly get away with it every week and the EFL need to do more to clamp down on it. Tactical time-wasting is part of the game of course, and understandable in the final minutes of games, but they started before half-time.

I decided to get a stopwatch in the second half and time it - by my view, which I appreciated is open for debate based on what actually constitutes time wasting, we clocked just over 14 minutes of wasted time, but got five added.

However, it was one of those days where we could have had 40 and you feel Town were not going to score.

There are some positives though. It was a solid performance across the rest of the pitch. A team who would have been tipped to be higher up the table couldn't live with us, despite the fact they scraped a win. They defined that as their best win of the season, so it goes to show how desperate teams are to beat us.

We saw a return for Lee Evans and more minutes for Sone Aluko - those two are going to be pivotal for the promotion charge in the second half of the season.

Despite the fact we dropped to second after Plymouth returned to the top with a win, we are in the automatic spots at the halfway mark (one game to go) and are still just above the two points-a-game target for the total points haul.

Our performances remain strong and although we have let too many points slip in games where we should really have won. We do not seem to drop in confidence this season. I don't envisage us losing again for the next six or seven games. We just need to make sure more of them are wins than draws.

Only Oxford are left to play this season before the second round of fixtures begin. Oxford are a team we often draw against. This time round it must be a Boxing Day win. They have not been in great form and find themselves at the wrong end of the table. It is important we pick up wins against all teams in the bottom half if we want to consolidate an automatic spot.

Yesterday, I saw the rumours I had been hoping for circling. We have been linked with Jonson Clarke-Harris. They are only rumours at this stage, so too early to read too much into them, but I do hope he is on our radar. He is the clinical striker I think we need to see us march on and take some of those chances we seem to constantly waste in games.

We also need a centre-back. Injuries seem to be mounting in that position and our record of clean sheets seems to be a distant memory at the moment. Shoring up the back three/four is something I hope Mark Ashton and Kieran McKenna are looking at.

Overall, I am happy with where we are at Christmas. It might have been far from perfect, and we have some improving to do in certain areas, but this is the best Town fans will remember for some time.

We are exciting to watch. We have a good squad of players who seem to get on well. We have a young, developing manager and an ownership with ambition. All of these are ingredients to success, so it is a good time to be a Town fan overall.

Just a final word on the World Cup as well. Despite all the controversy surrounding Qatar, I have to say it is the best tournament I can remember. It seemed a much more even playing field between teams and we saw some cracking games and surprises.

The final itself was outstanding as a neutral. I am not a huge fan of Argentina normally, but it was the perfect end to see the main man Lionel Messi lifting the trophy. I don't think a player has ever deserved it more, and hopefully it finally puts an end to the Messi-vs-Ronaldo debate. I have always been a Messi fan on that one.

It was a shame for England. Apart from the USA game I thought we looked very good and just lost out in a close 50/50 game against the previous world champions. On another day it was England who would have progressed and had a chance of lifting the trophy.

England remind me of Ipswich a lot at the moment. There's excitement and you feel something great is coming, it just needs a bit of improvement here and there for perfection!

Merry Christmas and Uppa Town

Europablue added 11:23 - Dec 19 There seems to be a bit of inflation of the 20 goal striker to 30 goal striker. The bigger problem than goals (from the stats) is that we have been letting in a lot of stupid goals. The problem isn't the number of goals we are scoring, it is the games where we need to be more clinical. There is a strong argument for bringing in a more clinical striker, I just don't really measure it in terms of total goals. 10 match-winning goals are much more valuable than 20 goals scored after 1 nil. We continued the trend of not being clinical against Wycombe and allowed them their perfect gameplan. We seem to find it much harder being the big fish in the little pond than we do against the teams who are in and around us. If we do manage to get promoted this season, then next season we might find it easier going against the teams at the bottom. Anyway, we need to be at least one of more clinical in terms of scoring goals or meaner in defence.

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scants_itfc_88 added 11:42 - Dec 19 I don't disagree at all, the goals we concede are sloppy but for the amount of chances we create, the ratio of goals scored is low. We do a score a decent amount but in terms of chances taken it's a very low conversion. A decent striker should hopefully bag a few more but it certainly isnt the only solution as you say!
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Cadiar added 20:03 - Dec 19 Can't see us going for the Posh CF, I think he'll cost too much, he's too old & only has 3 more goals than Ladapo, (maybe more) who we got for nothing. We have to consider FFP so I think it might be loan players coming in or much younger players. Nobody really stands out for me as someone who is going to get the goals needed.
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Facefacts added 13:57 - Dec 22 Strikers of the required quality don't play in our league and are not available in January. I think we have to keep backing the playing style of the manager and get the goals from the existing squad. Wycombe is a non league ground in a non league location and they play like it, a bit like Bracknell Town, their Cup Final, but without the full ground of supporters, who've already voted with their feet against the playing style and don't bother attending to watch that every week. But we should at least have got a 0 - 0 out of that game. The goal scorer will probably never be able to walk through a defence by dropping his shoulder ever again in his career. Hard to believe we could let that happen. A defensive midfielder and a central defender might come in in January, if available. The entertainment value is high, Portman Road is packed, we have to keep trusting the manager, but our defending is so poor I'm scared even to watch. This is how the Wycombe manager can crow about having less than 25% possession and still win.

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