BfB

The numbers on the newly installed seats on the top deck of the North Stand on the row in front of me ran sixty, sixty-one, sixty-three, sixty-four. I mention this because on the opening game of the 2025/26 season at Valley Parade as Wycombe Wanderers were sent home with nothing but a 2-1 defeat, it was difficult to think of anything else that went wrong, or a metaphor to hang a match report on.

The forward line of Antoni Sarcevic and Bobby Pointon behind Stephen Humphrys ended the day with more clear cut chances than any other team in the league and all three should have or did score.

One wing back, Josh Neufville, was a constant threat, combining the pace and power of a Joe Colback or an Omar Daley with a relentless usefulness of a Paul Reid or a Garry Thompson. The other, Ibou Touray, tackled one mysterious Chairboy so hard that the air seemed shake around him.

Pressure

Tommy Leigh’s role in midfield crystallised with Max Power taking the more forward role of the two, hunting down deep sitting midfielders trying to pass while making space for Leigh to do just that. Leigh moved the ball around the pitch impressively providing a safe place for City to store the ball when under pressure, an approached which worked better when it was used less often.

Not to miss anyone out by Sam Walker is an interesting figure. One preview said that no side in the division would swap their keeper for Walker, but I imagine every one would want the understanding that Walker has been able to generate with an ever-changing parade of defenders in front of him without ever losing their consistent obstinateness in the matter of conceding goals.

The back three of Curtis Tilt, Matthew Pennington and Joe Wright seemed to have missed out the parts where they get used to playing with each other and had a continuity of solidity from last season. They were left to rue a second half in which a referee Seb Stockbridge seemed to change his view of the hard high press City performed from being one side of the laws to the other.

0+6

Whilst always enjoing the Atkinson line on Referees the inconsistency between what was and what was not a foul between the two halves of this game was frustrating. As City spent more time defending the lead in the second half, City were more punished, but the Wycombe goal – a tidy finish by Daniel Udoh – came after another “was pressing/now foul” moment in the midfield which seemed only to give City two choices. Concede free kicks or allow the visitors more possession.

And Possession is what Wycombe enjoyed but – Udoh’s goal aside – Wycombe’s threat on City’s goal was illusory. The visitors had three on target, City had six. The visitors had two big chances, City had five. That Humphrys did not score when an outstretched leg provoked a remarkable save from debut keeper Mikki van Sas was unlucky and would have made the game 3-1, had his rounding of van Sas that saw him put the ball in the wide would have put it 3-0, but neither would have put the game safe, because the robust defensive action did that.

Humphrys has a hand in both goals, teeing up Bobby Pointon for a low drive after twelve minutes, six minutes after his Humphrys attempt had been pushed out and crossed back in for Sarcevic to head in six minutes into the season. Zero plus six, if you will.

So Now Then

And there is something to say about Sarcevic scoring twice in six minutes separated by a pitch invasion, a night on North Parade, a summer, an anticipation, a blustering charge of a kick-off, and purposeful attack, a cross from the left and a good run in, as if City have jumped over the struggling to adapt to League One had got straight down to being a robust high pressing unit who create chances.

As if the whole culture shock, the whole struggling to find one’s feet, the whole smaller fish/bigger pond thing has been skipped over.

Sixty, sixty-one, sixty-three, sixty-four.