retired_highmain9

“No no no. Callie please don’t go!” Andy Martin pleaded with his long time girlfriend, Callie Rasmussen.

“You’re a bum!” The busty blonde responded, “You can’t even seem to get a job in THIS town where you barely need your high school diploma to go get a job making thirty dollars an hour.”

Andy hated to admit it, but he knew that last statement was true. It would have been very easy for him to go out to one of several oil plants in the booming city and get even a labourers position making excellent money. But everyone who knew Andy, a former member of the Canadian under 18 squad just a few years ago, knew that he was still holding out a slight glimmer of hope that he could realize his longtime dream of becoming a professional soccer player.

“You know that’s not the type of life for me,” Andy shot back at Callie, “You know I’ve got-“ That was as far as he could proceed before being cut-off.

“Oh there you go again with your dreams of being a big time professional soccer player,” Callie said sarcastically, “Well news flash baby: It’s NEVER. GOING. TO. HAPPEN! Wake up and smell the roses and get a job like the rest of the people in this town.”

That was the last thing that was said before Callie picked up her bags and stormed out of the small apartment. All the while, Andy just stood there, mouth wide open, hoping that this was all just a dream. As the door was slammed shut, it seemed to snap him out of the trance he was in.

“FINE! FINE! I DON’T NEED SOMEONE LIKE YOU HOLDING ME BACK ANYWAY!” He screamed at the door, more for his own self-assurance than anything else.

Then reality slapped him in the face like a cold winters day in the desolate town he called home. She wasn’t going to come back through that door. The life he once knew was now crumbling down around him and deep down, when he thought about it, maybe she was right about it all. Maybe it was foolish of him to continue to chase a dream that was seemingly unattainable.

The city of lost souls and broken dreams had just claimed another.

retired_highmain9

It had been a year since Callie had left. Not much had changed in the life of Andy Martin since that fateful day twelve months ago. Andy Martin remained a broken young man, still clinging to a child’s dream in a grown mans body. As a result of this, most of the people who were once close to him had now deserted him. Yes, this was a man whose life was in shambles. Or at least, it was until that fateful phone call came through the wire.

As the phone began to ring, Andy dreaded having to drag himself off the couch to answer it. Who would it be this time? The bill collectors hassling him again? Those damn telemarketers trying to tell him how he could save seventy-three cents on his next purchase of KY Jelly? Or god forbid, his parents would be the ones on the other line, telling him how he needed to straighten out his life and otherwise berate him for SOMETHING gone wrong in his life. But the voice on the other end was one that he never, ever expected to hear from.

“Hello?”
“,,,”
“Yes this is him.”
“Yeah right. Like YOU’RE from Wycombe Wanderers football club.”
“...”
“Oh. You really are. My apologies then.”
“...”
“You’re saying that you’d like to offer me a position with your team?” This was the break Andy had been hoping for for years. He was going to finally realize his dream of becoming a big time soccer player. Sure league two wasn’t exactly the Premiership, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
“...”
“Oh. You’d like me to become the clubs manager?” It wasn’t a playing position as Andy had hoped. Hell, it was better.
“...”
A grin came across the young Canadian’s face, “When can I start?”
“...”
“Great. Thank you very much.”

As he hung up the telephone, Andy could not help himself but to pump his fist out of sheer jubilation. He would be heading to England for professional football. Sure his playing days had now officially ended, but his new found managerial career would be taking off in High Wycombe.

Things were now finally on an upswing for Andy. Maybe it wasn’t as foolish to keep chasing his dreams.

retired_highmain9

On the eve of the curtain coming up on the English League Two season for Wycombe, new manager Andy Martin was sitting in his office reflecting on what was a rather lackluster preseason friendly performance with no one apart from forward Jonny Dixon had really impressed for the Wanderers during the six exhibition games.

One thing that was worth noting, and something that worried Andy a great deal, was the severe lack of speed along the back line of his team. This severe lack of quickness had resulted in several scoring opportunities and ultimately goals which, with a proper defence, probably would not have come about.

There was another unsettling thing sticking in the back of Andy’s mind, although this one had nothing to do with football. What bothered him the most out of everything that had gone on in his life over the last twelve months or so was the fact that neither one of his parents had called, e mailed, or otherwise attempted to contact him to congratulate him on becoming the manager at Wycombe. Sure, soccer wasn’t the most popular sport in Andy’s home nation of Canada, that spot was eternally reserved for ice hockey, but certainly the news that a hometown boy had been named the man in charge at a club over in England would have made at least a small splash, so certainly his parents must have known.

But when Andy sat back and thought about things for a moment, he really shouldn’t be all that surprised. After all, he and his father, Tony were very similar in the fact that they were both very stubborn individuals. Hell, if they can go eight years without speaking to one another, what reason would they have to get back on speaking terms now?

But Wycombe’s manager had more important things to worry about than whether or not his parents knew about his latest good fortune or not. League Two action was due to start in just a matter of days against Barnet and the media had set lofty goals for the club who called Adams Park their home. The Wanderers were predicted to finish fourth in the table, sticking them smack dab in the middle of the fight for promotion, but with his teams troubles at the back, Andy knew it would take a couple new signings, and a little bit of luck, to meet those expectations.

The upcoming campaign was going to be a dogfight. Then again, the story of Andy Martin’s life was one big dogfight.

retired_highmain9

It was the day of Wycombe’s first competitive match under the reign of Andy Martin, an away day at the Underhill in London against hosts Barnet. It was mere minutes before his side were due to head out of the tunnel and onto the pitch and Andy could feel the nerves building in his stomach, like something he’d never felt before. This perplexed him because, after all, he had performed on the international stage when he was a younger lad. Of course, this was going to be a completely different animal. Andy knew that he couldn’t be out there on the park with his team, helping them to victory, they would have to live and die by that tactics he had laid out for them.

“You okay boss?”

Andy looked up to see his assistant, Ian Culverhouse, standing in the doorway.

“Yeah. Why?” Andy managed to reply weakly. He was clearly lying.

“Oh, nothing. You just look a little pale is all.”

Andy got up from his seat and went into the washroom to check himself out in the mirror. What Ian said was true, there were ghosts that had a better complexion that he did at the moment. He shrugged it off, “It’s just nerves.” He mumbled reassuringly to himself.. Besides, he had more important things to worry about than silly nerves.

As he and his team made their way out onto the pitch for the match, Andy took a moment to glance around the stadium. There turned out to be just under three thousand fans in attendance for the match, a number which Andy thought was pretty good considering they were in the lower leagues of English football. But what impressed him the most was that, despite the low number of fans in the stadium, they were probably just as loud if not louder than the tens of thousands he would play in front of as a Canadian international. A token to how different the countries were about their national passions.

What most impressed him was the solid congregation of Wycombe fans who had made the journey to London. Even before the match had kicked off, they were singing loudly and proudly for their squad, something that would continue for the full ninety minutes.

As the whistle blew for the opening kick-off, Andy paced up and down the touchline. These nerves just didn’t seem to want to go away. He hoped that his side would be able to notch an early marker and allow him to calm down a little bit.

He did not have to wait long for the first goal as Jermaine Easter opened the scoring for the visitors in the fifteenth minute, running on to a ball that took a bad bounce over the keepers head and cooly slotting it into the back of the goal. The Wycombe fans exploded with delight on the opposite end of the ground while all Andy could manage was a weak fist pump and a huge sigh of relief. Still, in the back of his mind, Andy feared that his lackluster defence would be unable to hold on to this slim advantage for very long.

His worst fears were confirmed in the thirty-fifth minute when Ismail Yakubu easily broke through the defence and blasted one past the keeper to draw things level and send the home fans into sheer bliss. It wasn’t that surprising to Andy, he just hoped they would be able to nick a goal late in the match so they wouldn’t have to cling to a small lead for very long.

He didn’t get what he wished for entirely, but the deadlock was broken just three minutes later when Jermaine Easter scored his second of the match, blasting a shot from a tight angle into the top corner. Andy was happy that Wycombe were back in front, but the thought of having to defend a one goal lead for nearly an hour with THIS defence worried him.

The score line remained 2-1 for the visiting team as the whistle blew to signal half-time. During the break, Andy stressed to his men the importance of keeping organised in defence if they wanted to walk out of the Underhill with the full three points.

It appeared that his speech at the half-time break fell on to deaf ears as Barnet were able to break through the defence several times in the early goings of the second half and created many scoring opportunities which, had it not been for the spectacular goalkeeping of Batista, might have yielded a different score line at the finish.

In fact, Wycombe were forced to be penned up inside their own half defending for most of the second stanza. The lone break away came in the ninetieth minute when a long ball was played onto Jermaine Easter, who was just barely onside. Andy thought his star striker would do the smart thing a take the ball down towards the corner flag and waste time off the clock. Instead, Easter played a low ball into Chris Palmer, who tried to hold the ball up but then quickly spun and fired a low shot into the net making it 3-1 and securing the three points for his side.

As the final whistle blew, Andy could not help but explode out of sheer happiness. He leapt into the air and pumped his fist several times. His side had done it, they had secured the win in the season opener. There was still a long road ahead if they were going to secure promotion to league one for next season, but for the time being he had proved all of the doubters wrong.

Oh how he wished he could see the look on his father’s face when he heard that news.

retired_highmain9

Wycombe’s second match in league two action saw them having another away day, this time they travelled to Lincoln. Andy Martin’s men were riding a high wave after a nice 3-1 victory in the season opener against Barnet.

Andy Martin wasn’t exactly pleased with his teams performance in the opening match despite the win. He knew that Barnet had exposed his sides weak defence and sooner rather than later, teams would begin to exploit the disadvantage they had at the back.

Yet despite this glaring issue, Andy seemed unwilling to abandon the standard 4-4-2 formation he had been using throughout the pre-season campaign and into the League Two season. He wanted to see if his men could straighten things out at the back and prove to him that the previous few game were just an anomaly.

As the match got underway it seemed as if it was going to be a midfield battle where the first team to nick a goal would end up coming away with the win. It remained a battle in the middle of the park until minute number thirty-five when Mark Roberts took a nice ball onto his feet from the midfield and danced around the porous Wycombe defence before scoring Lincolns first goal of the early season and it was a 1-0 lead for the hosts.

Andy stood on the touchline and could do nothing else but heave a heavy sigh. Once again, his defence had been exposed and it was clear that he was going to quickly need to make a couple of signings or loan deals off the pitch if he wanted to have any hope of leading his team to promotion glory.

The news for Wycombe went from bad to worse as the Lincoln lead was doubled just three minutes later in the thirty-eighth minute when Roberts scored his second of the match in an eerily similar fashion as he sliced through the defence for a second time and slid a second ball into the back of the Wanderers net. The Lincoln fans were ecstatic with their teams early performance, especially that of the man who had scored twice for their squad.

The frustration was now clearly evident on the face of Wycombe’s Canadian man in charge. His plan had become unravelled and it was due to, it appeared, an incompetent back line. The warning signs were now fully in view and he just had to pray to God that his side would not concede another.

Jonny Dixon gave his manager a glimmer of hope during first half injury time as he powered home a beautiful header off the corner which was really the only chance for the visitors in the opening forty-five minutes.

So the score read that Lincoln was ahead by a score of 2-1 as the teams retreated back into the changing rooms for the half-time break. During his team talk at the break, Andy stressed that it would be important for his team to go on the attack in the second half if they wanted to salvage a point if nothing else from this match. He also stressed the need to be smart at the back and not allow their opponents any more easy opportunities at increasing their lead.

Unfortunately for Andy, as much as he wanted his team to go on the attack in the second forty-five, they were unable to. Any glimmer of attacking aggression shown by the visitors was quickly snuffed out by a Lincoln side who, during their half-time strategy session, had decided it would be practical for them to throw ten men behind the ball and hope to cling to their one goal advantage and take the three points off their opponents.

Wycombe’s lone real scoring chance came in the eighty-sixth minute, when Chris Palmer launched a rocket from just outside the penalty area which struck the crossbar and bounced behind out of play for a goal kick.

The final whistle had blown following four minutes of second half injury time and Lincoln had escaped with a 2-1 victory over promotion favourites Wycombe. They had picked up their first victory of the early season, in fact, it was their first points at all in the 2006-2007 campaign.

It was an afternoon of firsts, really. Lincoln had picked up their first points and first win while Andy had picked up a first of his own. His first migraine.

retired_highmain9

“We’ve got to do something.” That was the plea of Wycombe manager Andy Martin to his assistant Ian Culverhouse

“About the defence?” Culverhouse replied

“Naturally”

“Change the formation, perhaps?”

It certainly couldn’t hurt to try a change in tactics. After all, something had to be changed.

“What did you have in mind?” Andy asked.

“5-3-2 maybe? It could certainly help us to have that extra man at the back.” Culverhouse replied.

Andy sat back and thought about things for a moment. He didn’t feel as if the 5-3-2 would be something that could work long term, but it possibly could work for the time being until some much needed help could be brought in.

“Sure. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

So Wycombe would revert to a more defensive 5-3-2 formation in their next match hoping that would stop the bleeding at the back. Although Andy was still unsure about whether or not this would work, things certainly couldn’t get any worse.

retired_highmain9

After two matches on the road to kick off the season, it was finally time for Wycombe’s first meaningful game at Adams Park under the guidance of Andy Martin. Forty-six hundred singing fans were on hand to greet the Canadian manager and his side as they made their way onto the pitch. Andy begrudgingly decided to go with the 5-3-2 that was suggested to him during his meeting with assistant Ian Culverhouse and prayed to God it would be enough to see them through the game.

Off the start, it certainly appeared as if his Wycombe boys were more organised at the back and the addition of a fifth man in defence certainly didn’t hurt either. Wycombe opened the scoring in the sixteenth minute when Stefan Oakes headed home a beautifully taken free kick off the foot of Chris Palmer.

As the match went on, the Wanderers back line appeared to still maintain their shape and organisation for the full ninety minutes, something that both shocked, and pleased Andy when watching from the touchline. Maybe he would have to stick with this formation after all.

The lead was doubled on forty-three minutes when Jermaine Easter notched his third goal of the early season, finally firing home an attempt after the keeper had just made two brilliant saves off shots from both Easter and Chris Palmer.

It remained 2-0 for Wycombe as the teams headed back into the changing rooms for half-time. Andy felt compelled to drill into his players heads that despite the fact they were ahead by two goals, things could turn around very quickly for them if they made the choice to get lazy in defence.

The second half started off much like the first half had ended, with Wycombe dominating the possession. Add to that the fact that Wycombe were somehow able to maintain their shape and organisation at the back, much to the pleasure of their gaffer. Sure, there were a couple of lapses resulting in a couple of corners being conceded but that happens to even the greatest of defences.

The final whistle blew and the score line at full time matched the one at the half, it was 2-0 to Wycombe. The fans were delighted with the result and Andy Martin was impressed with the great all around performance from his side. It certainly looked as if things were on the up and up for the boys from High Wycombe. They were making themselves out to be the promotion contenders everyone in the media had hoped they would be before the season had gotten underway.

“I told you it would work,” Ian Culverhouse joked with his boss as they triumphantly marched off the field towards the changing room, “Change is good!”

“Shut up!” Andy joked with his assistant as they made their way back through the tunnel.

retired_highmain9

Andy Martin and Wycombe Wanderers made their way to Darlington having learned of both good and bad news before kick-off. The bad news was that they would still be without Sergio Torres, whose ban had been extended a further two matches. This was disappointing to Andy who, up until the news was passed on to him, had expected Torres to make an impact in this game.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that the draw for the second round of the Carling Cup had taken place earlier in the day. Wycombe had been drawn for a home tie against Championship side Cardiff. Andy knew the game would be challenging, but his side had proved in their first round match-up against Birmingham that they could never been taken lightly.

As for the game at Darlington, Jonny Dixon got Wycombe off to an absolute dream start. Sending a blast from just inside the penalty area into the bottom left corner to make it 1-0 for the visiting team just four minutes after the opening whistle.

The lead would be short lived, though, as Simon Johnson would draw Darlington level in the twenty-fourth minute, heading home a lovely cross from the left side to make it 1-1.

Disaster would strike for the visitors in minute thirty-eight when the goalscorer, Jonny Dixon, picked up his second yellow card of the game and was sent off, much to the dismay of everyone involved with Wycombe. In truth, the foul probably didn’t warrant a second booking, but the strictness of match official Andy Hall disagreed.

Wycombe came close to retaking the lead in the fifty-second minute when striker Jermaine Easter appeared to head home the go ahead goal, but it was called back due to an apparent foul in the six yard box. Wycombe captain Will Antwi again disagreed with referee Andy Hall and received a yellow card for his efforts.

After all was said and done, the match finished at full-time as it had when the half-time whistle had been blown. It remained 1-1 and Andy Martin could not say that he was disappointed with escaping from the match with a single point. He would admit that he was disappointed that he would be without a midfielder as well as a forward for Wycombe’s next game against MK Dons.

retired_highmain9

August 2006 Summary
Wycombe 3(Easter 15, 38, Palmer 90)
Barnet 1(Yakubu. 35)

Wycombe 1(Dixon 45)
Lincoln 2(Roberts 35, 38)

Boston 0
Wycombe 2(Oakes 16, Easter 43)

Wycombe 1(Dixon 4')
Darlington 1(Johnson 24')
Notes: Dixon sent off(38')

shannon2007

This is actually very good. I suspect you might be updating a tad too fast perhaps, which makes it hard for some people to keep up, which would be a shame but good luck with it!