Ten-man Wycombe Wanderers remain firmly in the League One automatic promotion places as they were held to a 1-1 draw away at Cambridge United.

It was the Chairboys’ first visit to the Abbey on a Saturday afternoon since October 2017, and they started the better of the two teams.

Dan Udoh, Fred Onyedimna and Beryly Lubala were making things work up top, as they tried their luck on a handful of occasions.

Udoh saw a header go wide, Onyedimna’s crosses caused the Cambridge defence problems, whilst Lubala also went close.

This was in a Wanderers team that was missing star striker Richard Kone, who was nursing a knee injury.

He picked up the knock in the 2-1 victory over Barnsley four days earlier, in which he scored a brace, which included an injury-time winner.

Cambridge looked threatening whenever Dom Ballard got the ball as he was United’s main source of creativity.

This resulted in the former Reading man hitting the corner of the post and bar midway through the opening period.

But this was as good as it got as Wanderers began to show their dominance.

Stevens was on hand to catch several of Chairboy crosses before Sam Grace’s side took the lead.

Lubala’s low drive was fumbled by the keeper, and there was Cameron Humphreys to smash home his fifth of the season on 34 minutes.

It was his first goal in two months.

However, the fixture descended into chaos in a crazy spell of play with 24 minutes remaining.

A Cambridge corner, which was missed by everyone, resulted in a penalty to the home side after Sonny Bradley was deemed to have elbowed Michael Morrison off the ball.

The 33-year-old was given a straight red card for the alleged offence, and United were given a penalty.

However, Josh Stokes’s spot-kick was brilliantly saved by Franco Ravizzoli, as he went to the keeper’s right.

The ball did find its way into the back of the net from the resulting kick, but, referee Martin Woods, deemed that the Argentine shot-stopper was fouled.

But Stokes made up for his penalty miss with a terrific bending effort with nine minutes remaining.

Ravizzoli was on hand to make several important stops in the dying embers of the contest, as Wanderers held on.

Wycombe stay second, four points behind first-placed Birmingham City, and four ahead of third-place Wrexham.

Up next is a trip to Preston North End on February 8.

Attendance: 6,866 (865 away)