Chairboys hope to retain their seat

Wycombe Wanderers boss Gareth Ainsworth reckons that the Chairboys have already learned valuable lessons about life in League One. The Trust-owned club made a faltering start to life at a higher level. After scoring 79 goals last season, the boys from beechy Bucks had a home 0-0 draw against Blackpool on the opening day of the season, followed by a 3-0 defeat at Doncaster and a 1-3 loss at home to Bristol Rovers. They then got a 1-1 draw in a midweek game at Plymouth and last Saturday achieved a 2-1 at Bradford. As is so often the case, they are a team whose confidence has been boosted as they prepare to meet the Addicks.

Ainsworth told the Football League Paper 'We're finding out that when you get chances you've got to take them. And if you give chances the opposition in League One, they do take them. The difference for me in League One is the forward play. It's sharper and more clinical - you can't give too many chances away. League One is new to a lot of us, and it's a work in progress.' Survival in the third tier is the aim for this season.

An old school friend of mine lived in many different places (and with many different women) over the years before retiring to his native Essex, but the one place he disliked because it was so unfriendly was High Wycombe.

When Rushden & Diamonds were still playing I occasionally went to matches there and on one occasion they beat Wycombe Wanderers. The Chairboys fans took exception to a decision by the referee and stayed in their seats after the match chanting 'Chairboys' which I suppose was appropriate as they were sitting down. I could still hear them as I walked up the hill to my car. They may not have a huge support, but they are keen and will probably turn out in numbers in the hope of replicating the League Cup defeat they inflicted on us when we were in the Premier League.

The worst part of it is that I will encounter them on the way home at Marylebone, no doubt in a state of great excitement if they have secured an away draw against a 'big' clb. Charlton fans know that we used to be a big club but have been ruined by Roland.