Chairboys boss believes Leyton Orient won’t lose many matches on home soil this season

Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth doesn’t expect many teams to leave Brisbane Road this season having taken points off Leyton Orient.

That is what his side achieved on Saturday after Matt Bloomfield put them ahead just before half time. Jay Simpson managed to equalise for the O’s with 23 minutes remaining, but both teams had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Ainsworth was disappointed not to beat Orient, but conceded in the long run it should look like a good point for his Chairboys.

“I’m gutted not to get three points. It was a sloppy goal to give away and there were a couple of incidents in the game that I thought could have changed the match,” the Wycombe boss told Bucks Free Press.

“A point before the game I would have taken and it just goes to show how far we have come because we are a much smaller club than Leyton Orient. It was a big giant against us and we have stood up to them and then some.

“I don’t think Orient will have too many teams coming to Brisbane Road and giving them a real game like we have done. I’m really proud of my players.

“We set up to stifle their game in midfield. We changed our tactics and played without wingers and it worked a treat. I didn’t think they had too much of an answer to what we were doing.

“In the second half they changed things and went with a big man up front and went very direct and that’s a compliment to us that they have to change.”

Wycombe lined up in a 4-1-3-2 formation and played captain Bloomfield for the first time this season.

Ainsworth admitted his staff had watched videos of Orient and worked out how they could snuff out the threat of the east Londoners, who had scored 14 times in seven league matches before last weekend.

He added: “It was purely tactical to bring Matt back in, we’ve changed the way we play because we have watched Orient, we know how they love to dominate midfield and come through that so we set up as a 4-1-3-2 and I thought it worked really well, exactly as we planned.

“We got plenty of forward play from that and I think we were probably the closer of the two teams to getting the three points, but it just eluded us.

“We were the side that looked more like to score at the time and we could have nicked it at the end. We’ve got a point here at Leyton Orient and if too many teams can say that this season I will be surprised.”