Wycombe 1 York City 0

Some may say York City's play-off chances have long been drawn and thwarted by their quite astounding away record.

Ten shared endeavours on opponents' turf have been critical to City's inability to over-much occupy a coveted top six position.

But how the misfiring Minstermen would have welcomed a dose of parity in sight, not High Wycombe last night.

Down in deepest Buckinghamshire City's sharing trend was expensively bucked. Just how costly will ultimately unfold in the final nine weeks of the season.

If there is a price to pay then it should be remembered that the 'Bucks' stop solely with City. The defeat, only their sixth on away soil, was distinctly of their own making and of the unavoidable kind.

Individually, the Chairboys are not in the same class as their latest visitors. Collectively, they will not attain the performance peak so often reached this term by York's current crew. But the hosts stubbornly refused to suffer any inferiority complex.

As befitting a team anxious to please new man in charge Neil Smillie, upgraded after John Gregory's about-turn from treading water to aqua-planing with Aston Villa, Wycombe applied more scrap than found in a stock-car cemetery.

City did not lack industry. But it was huff and puff not enough to threaten a straw doll's house, let alone the brick out-building solidity of Wycombe.

Where the visitors were bizarrely bereft was in ideas. For once City were artisans, not artists. Little craft, loads of graft.

In previous games the men in red had chipped, chiselled, chopped out chances. But tidy Adams Park bore witness to no such crop of creativity. At game end Chairboys' goal-keeper Martin Taylor would not have needed to clean his gloves.

Defensively there can be little, if any criticism, directed at the City back-line.

In trusty custodian Mark Samways City had a worthy last-man barrier, reflexes keener than a children's television presenter, anticipation sharper than a switch-blade.

From as early as the third minute Samways displayed an implacable nature diving full-length to his left to foil a raid by Wycombe's version of the S-a-S.

Scott (Keith) and Stallard (Mark) manoeuvred a menacing opening from which the latter crashed a fearsome shot goal-wards. The stinger was contemptuously gloved for a corner.

He later improved on that intervention with a stunning arch backwards to tip Dave Carroll's leathered and measured thump away for a corner.

In front of Samways the red-clad cordon, augmented by on-loan newcomer Neil Thompson, were quick to cover and challenge, tackle and battle. They were breached but once, a Carroll bender fortuitously dipping off Andy McMillan's slipping frame to fall kindly to new Wycombe skipper Keith Ryan in the 72nd minute.

He poked the ball in from close-range for his second winner in as many games since being handed the armband. A case of yon Ryan's excess.

City's flaw-show was at the sharp end. The pairing of Marco Gabbiadini and Jonathan Greening, so languid and fluid in 30 minutes at Brentford, were flaccid and flitting for three times the Bees' time.

In the second-half especially, both were muscled out of contention by the burly attention of the Wycombe markers. Not that either City forward was assisted by reliable service.

A lean time is presently being endured by the central axis of Mark Tinkler and Steve Bushell. Effort, yes. Enterprise, no. A similar plight befalls Alan Pouton, though in mitigation the wide role is clearly not to his best advantage.

And to cap it all City ignored Sir Bobby Charlton's advice of shooting at will. "If you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the draw' was a homily avowed by England and Manchester United's long-range specialist.

The lone stun-man in all the aridity was winger Paul Stephenson. Twice in the first-half he enticed Gabbiadini to shoot, one effort drifting narrowly wide, the other blocked by Taylor's legs.

And Stephenson, who profited from Thompson's diligent distribution, did have a go. Seconds into stoppage-time a 30-yard blast screeched inches away from an upright. Top-drawer, and face-saving raw, it would have been too.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.