I've been to a Wycombe v Wednesday fixture before.
In April 2022 a Gareth McCleary goal gave the Chairboys victory over a Wednesday team which would end that season fourth in League One, losing out to Sunderland in the playoffs. Wycombe would suffer the same fate at Wembley as the black cats earned promotion to the Championship.
That Wycombe game was on the weekend of what would have been my dad's 71st birthday. He had died two and a half years earlier from Motor Neurone Disease. I remember having mixed feelings about being so far from home at that time.
I thought my mum might want to mark the occasion somehow. A trip to the crematorium followed by a family meal at the nice pub around the corner. But she wasn't troubled by it. I think she'd reached a stage where she didn't feel the need to mark every birthday, every anniversary that way. He would have thought it ridiculous anyway. He was a bit of a realist, my dad. Once you're gone, you're gone he would have said.
I was there that day because I have a connection to Wycombe as well as Wednesday. My partner is a Wednesday fan, born in the Northern General but brought up in High Wycombe. Her dad grew up in Sheffield and is a lifelong Wednesday fan. So that's where she gets it from. Well, you wouldn't want to grow up supporting Wycombe, would you? They weren't even in the Football League at that time.
Owls manager Henrik Pedersen switched from the 4-3-3 which had evicerated League One newcomers Bromley 7-2 at the weekend to a 4-3-2-1 formation. Gabriel Otegbayo came back into defence for Ricardo Santos while Jamal Lowe dropped back into a midfield role with Callum Slattery and Louie Barry in support of striker Mason Burstow.
Otegbayo's return to the starting line-up didn't start well. After just five minutes his attempted headed clearance ricocheted off Cauley Woodrow, leading the former Barnsley man straight in on goal. He calmly slotted past Joe Lumley to open the scoring.
As quickly as they were behind, Wednesday were level. Barry outpaced the home defence and found Burstow. His shot was parried by goalkeeper Conor Hazard to leave Barry with a simple tap-in. It was Barry's third goal of the season after joining from Aston Villa after he'd bagged two against Bromley.
The incident packed opening continued when after just 15 minutes Barry pulled up suddenly with nobody near him. One minute he was in full flight, the next he was hopping around in obvious discomfort. He had to be helped off and replaced by Kieran Morrison. On loan from Liverpool, Morrison has Curtis Jones vibes visually, but operates more in wider areas than the now Inter Milan midfielder.
Morrison may be about to increase his game time because the news on Barry is not good. Though it could have been worse. He has been ruled out for around three months after ligament damage was discovered. It's a significant blow which no doubt disrupts Pedersen's plans. But it does perhaps present an opportunity to Morrison. Next man up etc...
If Barry experienced joy and despair it turned out to be a mixed night for Woodrow too. Having put his side ahead it was his rash, rather blind challenge on Slattery which saw Wednesday awarded a penalty in added time at the end of the first half. It was a very League One sort of tackle and even more typical of an attacking player. Lowe had
scored from the spot in the season opener at Leyton Orient and did so again to send Pedersen's men in ahead at 2-1 at the break.
At some point shortly after the interval Wycombe had a goal disallowed. But I didn't see it. Problems with the Sky Sports app mean the first eight minutes of the second half are an unseen foreign land to me. That is until I just saw the goal that wasn't on YouTube.
Some hapless defending in Wednesday's right back position allowed Malik Mothersille to get a cross in which flicked off a defender and seemingly in at the far post. Fred Onyedinma was in the vicinity and must have been adjudged to have touched it with his arm on the way in. I'm not sure he needed to get involved but the camerawork won't be winning any awards so it's tough to say.
There were further Liverpool connections - albeit from the distant past - when Jaden Heskey replaced Burstow with 25 minutes left. Jaden is the son of former Liverpool and England striker Emile. The younger Heskey is more of an attacking midfielder. He's on loan from Manchester City but then, isn't everyone? But clearly there was a gap in the market for sons of former footballers after Josh Windass and Bailey Cadamarteri left town for Wrexham.
As this one entered its final act there were varying coping methods on show. Barry Bannan was fortunate to escape a yellow card for a verbal tirade at the referee complete with apoplectic gesticulation after he was denied a free-kick for a late tackle. The yellow arrived not long after anyway as the midfield orchestrator was guilty of a late challenge of his own.
Meanwhile Yan Valery was feeling a good deal more relaxed at right-back. He spent the latter stages playing like Carlos Alberto, raiding forward and making crosses and shots in an attempt to almost single-handedly kill the game off.
Despite the coolness of the Tunisian there was another scare before the points could be secured. A Reece James handball was the subject of some highly vociferous penalty shouts from Wycombe players who - to be fair - were vociferous about most things on the night. You have seen them given - and in the sanitised, football ruining world of VAR at the top of the league pyramid it probably would have been. But thankfully League One still relies on actual refereeing and the decision went Wednesday's way.
Pedersen's men held on, helped also by Lumley's Pickfordian game management technique of hitting the floor like a customer in the middle of a bank robbery every time he caught a cross or a shot. Three wins out of four in the league has elevated Wednesday to second in an embryonic table, just a point behind Huddersfield Town.
Next up for Pedersen and his side is a lunchtime trip to Peterborough United on Saturday. Darren Ferguson - another son of someone significantly more illustrious - is enjoying one of his spells when he is not the Posh manager. Instead Luke Williams leads a side which sits 18th in the table having beaten Mansfield Town, drawn with Stevenage but also suffered a 4-0 drubbing at Blackpool. They've also somehow stuck five past Championship Watford in the increasingly random Carabao Cup early rounds.
If Wednesday can claim another win away from home against a highly unpredictable outfit it will keep the momentum going and edge them further towards a genuine promotion challenge.
And then it might be a lot longer than four years before I once more find myself watching the Owls down at Adams Park.
