Adams Park - Wycombe Wanderers FC
Wycombe Wanderers 2-2 Aston Villa
20/07/13 - Pre-Season Friendly
Att: 4,629
It feels like yesterday that the 2012/13 season drew to a close at Wigan's DW Stadium but in the blink of an eye it was time for all this madness to start again with a relatively short trip to Adams Park to watch Wycombe Wanderers take on Aston Villa in Villa's first pre-season friendly on English soil.
I was thoroughly looking forward to returning to the ground where I first saw Villa play in a friendly in 1998. On that occasion Villa won 3-0 but I haven't seen the Villans win a friendly since and after three draws in Germany I guess it was quite predictable that this match would finish in a similar way.
The journey was a simple one from Farnborough with just a change in London taking you straight through to High Wycombe. When I stepped off of the train it occurred to me that I had no idea where the ground was but thankfully I bumped into a couple of lads I knew at the station and we jumped in a taxi towards the Hour Glass, a pub not far from the ground.
After a few beers in there I headed down to Adams Park, a ground that was built in 1990, three years before Wycombe were promoted to the Football League. It was originally opened with a capacity of 6,000 but upon gaining promotion from the Conference the capacity was increased to 10,000. In 1996 the two tiered Frank Adams Stand was opened down one side and in 2001 the Dreams Stand was extended to accommodate larger away followings at the ground. Due to being built at the end of an industrial estate with one road in and one road out the ground is not the most accessible and as a result has had it's capacity set at 10,000 by the council.
Having been promoted to the Football League in 1993 under the guidance of Martin O'Neill the Chair Boys went on to achieve a second consecutive promotion a year later after defeating Preston at Wembley. They became a regular feature in the third tier and in 2001 they made national headlines by reaching the FA Cup semi-final, where they were narrowly beaten 2-1 by Liverpool at Villa Park.
In 2003/04 Wycombe dropped into the fourth tier where they remained until 2008/09 when they pipped Bury to promotion on goal difference. In the mean time Paul Lambert lead the club to another major cup semi-final in 2006/07 in the League Cup but they were defeated 5-1 on aggregate by Chelsea following victories over Fulham and Charlton Athletic in the previous rounds.
Their return to the third tier was a short one as Wycombe went straight back down, but under the stewardship of Gary Waddock they returned at the first time of asking, but once again Wycombe returned to the basement division after one season. Wycombe kicked off last season as favourites to be promoted again but a disappointing campaign saw Waddock sacked in September and Gareth Ainsworth took charge, eventually leading them to a disappointing 15th placed finish.
Inside the ground there was a good atmosphere building among the 2,000 travelling Villa fans who had filled the away end, although there wasn't a great turn out from the home support which was surprising given the visit of a Premier League side. It was a beautiful afternoon in one of the most picturesque grounds that I've visited and the teams emerged both wearing their away kits for the new campaign - Wycombe were sporting a strange sunrise style mixture of yellow and orange, meanwhile Villa turned out in an even worse purple and white effort.
Despite Villa making a strong start to the match it was the home side who went ahead in bizarre circumstances when Marvin McCoy's cross took a deflection and dipped in at the far post. Their lead didn't last long however as Matt Lowton headed Villa level. Just past the half an hour mark Wycombe regained their lead with Villa typically conceding from a corner as Leon Johnson headed home unmarked.
Seven minutes after the restart Villa were level again when a clever free kick from Ashley Westwood beat the Wycombe keeper at his near post to conclude the scoring for the afternoon. It was a largely sloppy Villa performance but it's only a friendly and I never read too much into them.
Despite the goals I have to confess that I found the affair quite dull, as I do with most pre-season games. However it was an enjoyable afternoon at a pleasant venue which I'd be more than happy to return to in the future.
Entrance to Adams Park
Club shop
Frank Adams Stand
Green King IPA Terrace
Main Stand
Panoramic view of Adams Park
