Wycombe boss impressed by City after efforts in FA Cup

MATT BLOOMFIELD admitted that he can understand why York City are performing so well in the Vanarama National League after their applaudable efforts against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

Despite there being 47 places between the two  sides in the footballing pyramid, York provided a good account of themselves against Sky Bet League One high-fliers Wycombe, falling to a narrow 3-2 defeat.

A foul from Ryan Fallowfield had allowed Luke Leahy to convert from the penalty spot, before Gideon Kodua doubled the hosts’ advantage with a well-taken strike.

Tyrese Sinclair halved the deficit with an unbelievable effort, before Leahy curled home a free-kick.

Joe Felix opened his account for City with a late strike, with Wycombe withholding some late pressure to advance to the second round of the Emirates FA Cup.

Bloomfield admitted that he felt jitters towards the end of the contest, and took the time to credit the performance of York, who he felt were a harder opposition for Wycombe than some Sky Bet Championship teams would have been.

“You can [see why York are top of the National League], we knew that before the game and we watched enough of Hinsh’s [Adam Hinshelwood, York manager] team to know that they were going to be really tough opposition," Bloomfield told club media.

“It’s a tougher game I believe in the cup, when you are playing against lower [league] teams that are doing well than teams that are in a division higher that aren’t used to winning.

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“You’re playing against confidence, you are playing against momentum and you are playing against belief.

“We knew that it would be a tough afternoon for us, I felt like we did a lot of good stuff and created a lot of chances, but we didn’t close the back door enough.

“We gave York a route back into the game and ultimately we nearly paid the price for that.

“There’s plenty still to learn and we’re still evolving, we’re still learning and growing.

“Some of that has to be on me because I made so many changes to the team, so I take responsibility for the fact that at times it may have looked slightly disjointed.”

Wycombe have a less than admirable record in the FA Cup after falling to defeats against lower league opposition in recent years, with Bloomfield glad to have avoided a potential banana skin against York.

He felt that Wycombe should have put the game to bed rather than allow City some late hope, and spoke on the tactics employed by Hinshelwood.

Bloomfield added: “We’ve had some tough days in the cup over recent years, and we knew that this was going to be another tough afternoon for us.

“To get through, we are absolutely delighted.

“It was too close, for my liking. I think that we had opportunities to put the game to bed and as soon as you don’t do that, 3-1 is still a tough scoreline and when you are playing against a tough opposition.

“They are used to creating chances and are used to scoring goals, they changed formation and threw caution to the wind up front, so they were always going to be in the game until that point.

“It was too close to my liking at the end, but ultimately we came out as winners and we’re pleased with that.”