Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth said his players were given additional motivation ahead of this afternoon’s 1-0 defeat of the Blues with Town’s large travelling contingent spilling out into the corridors outside their dressing room.

Brandon Hanlan scored the game’s only goal five minutes before the break to see the Chairboys to their first ever victory over the Blues, Town’s second away defeat of the season and their third in the league overall. Wycombe are only the second side to keep a clean sheet against Town in the league this season.

The Chairboys gave Blues supporters an additional 942 tickets above the usual away allocation in sections which are usually home areas, a decision which was criticised by some home fans, but which led to Adams Park’s record attendance for the season of 7,602 with 2,612 of that number travelling from Suffolk.

“There was a bit before the game when the Ipswich players were spilling out into the dressing room, as they bought more equipment here than I have ever seen another team bring,” Ainsworth explained to the Bucks Free Press.

“They were stretching in the corridors and my boys were stepping over them. My boys took that as a little bit of a whack as they thought ‘This is our place, this is our home so don’t take over’.

“I know we sold a lot of tickets as their fans travel incredibly well and that helps us financially.

“If this fixture was five years ago, there would be 9,000 people here for a third round FA Cup tie. Now, we’re in the same league we are on the same playing field.

“This is Wycombe Wanderers and in a way, we’re still looked like as this club that people should be beating, but, sometimes they go away from here thinking, ‘How did we not beat them?’

“And that’s because my boys are a special group of players and lots of people have said that the ‘Wycombe bubble has burst’ after the sticky period we had at the start of the season…no chance.

“We’re bulletproof and as long as I’m in charge, these boys will give it their absolute all in every single game. But Ipswich are a huge and brilliant club and they deserve to be respected.”

Town had 71 per cent of the possession during the game but Ainsworth says that matters not a jot to him.

“Possession can do one for me as the game is all about goals,” added Ainsworth, who celebrated 10 years in charge of Wycombe in September.

“It’s brilliant for Brandon that he got his goal, but his work-rate was awesome and that’s important to me too.

“There were so many positives as Dom Gape came back, Nick Freeman got more minutes when he came on and Sam [Vokes] did well too. I’m proud of the performance today.”

Photo: Matchday Images

AlanG296 added 22:18 - Dec 17 All that equipment Town brought by they didn't remember to bring reliable means to score goals. Don't fully agree with his view on possession but ultimately football is about goals. It's not about how long you have the ball but what you achieve with it.
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ghostofescobar added 22:44 - Dec 17 Correct, Alan, and the vast, vast majority of the time this season we have both had the ball AND got results, and that is the right way to do it. Every now and then, there will be one that doesn't go our way. It happens.
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BLUEBEAT added 23:20 - Dec 17 INXS
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Bert added 11:28 - Dec 18 Perhaps Wycombe need to consider their ambition and get decent sized dressing rooms rather than having a pop. Whilst Ainsworth may be proud of his team's defensive display, can he be proud of the deliberate time wasting to slow the game down when his players were under the cosh ? There is no doubt that the target on our back is something we have to find a solution to but give me the Ipswich way any day over the cynical non footballing sides in this horrible league.

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Len_Brennan added 11:34 - Dec 18 "Possession can do one for me as the game is all about goals,” added Ainsworth - He has a point. If all teams in the league went out to play us in an open free flowing game, we would probably be 10 points clear already & have plenty more goals in the bank too, but we do struggle against sides that look to frustrate us, have done all year & even did in the Cook & Lambert days. Because we don't have a centre forward who is a finisher, an opportunist, we find ourselves really regretting the missed chances we do get. In an open game we know the chances will keep coming due to the quality we have from deep & midfield, so we can get away with having Jackson & Lapado, who will miss 2 (!) to score 1, up front. But against tight defensive minded opposition it is shown up. We need to find alternative ways to score goals, tactics/formation, in these games, and yes, we do still need to get a proper striker in, with a much higher conversion rate.

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dud5ers added 13:02 - Dec 18 What weird rubbish opposition managers talk.
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Bert added 13:34 - Dec 18 Spot on Len. You have hit the nail on the head. Go one down and it gets even worse trying to prise teams open.
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Radlett_blue added 14:42 - Dec 18 I don't like some of the things Wycombe do, particularly slowing down the game, but Ainsworth has got results on a low budget & you have to say Wycombe are very well organised. Not sure this style would work at a higher level.
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ChrisFelix added 18:54 - Dec 18 Yet again we lose points to a team inferior to us.We have quality players all over the park, but unfortunately we don't have a natural goal scorer. Until this is rectified we will continue to struggle against most teams in this league
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MaySixth added 10:20 - Dec 19 Absolute nonsense from Ainsworth - we took the same amount of equipment last season to Adams Park when we won 4-1 and he said nothing then.
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Cadiar added 19:41 - Dec 19 Same old rubbish about a CF. Haven't people realised yet that is not KM's style. We are still joint top scorers, how did that happen witout the lump of a CF. As for Ainsworth, his style might be OK in this horrible league but it wins no fans & just doesn't work in the Championship which is why Wycombe will remain an also ran. It might also be why they have pitiful attendances. Finally, the 3 WW players who went to our fans need to be given he'll if they ever get the honour of playing at PR but guess they'll be all in their own penalty bow for 90 minutes.

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