Wycombe Wanderers continued their great home form as they defeated Bristol Rovers 3-1 at Adams Park.
The game, which was dedicated to 13-year-old Wycombe fan Oliver Darlington who died of sepsis last month, saw Wanderers take the lead in the ninth minute when Adebayo Akinfenwa scored his eighth goal of the season.
The 37-year-old, who hadn't scored since the 4-1 home defeat to Coventry back in December, got the game’s first goal after he tucked the ball under Jamal Blackman from 10-yards.
READ MORE: Live at Adams Park: Wycombe Wanderers vs Bristol Rovers
Moments later, Alex Samuel thought he had doubled Wanderers’ lead when his effort from 20-yards went over Blackman and landed on the roof of the net.
Wycombe continued to press with Akinfenwa forcing Blackman into a couple of decent saves with powerful headers, but against the run of play, Bristol Rovers equalised through Jayden Mitchell-Lawson on 27-minutes.
The 20-year-old, who is currently on loan from Derby County, fired in a cracking effort from 20-yards past Ryan Allsop, and Rovers, who hadn’t won in their last 12 matches, found themselves level.
The goal seemed to spark Rovers into life as they started to pepper Wycombe with shots from all over the park.
Rovers’ skipper Ollie Clarke had two attempts saved by Allsop before he fired wide, Alex Rodman saw his volley from 10-yards just go over the bar and on the half-hour mark, Jonson Clarke-Harris, who has already played for nine clubs in his relatively short career, smashed the crossbar with a thunderous volley from 12-yards.
READ MORE: Wycombe Wanderers to remember Oliver Darlington during Bristol Rovers clash
The tide turned to Rovers’ favour as Wycombe’s defence were all at sea, but Wanderers showed why they are challenging for a place in the Championship, as they scored twice in two minutes just before half-time.
On 38 minutes, Joe Jacobson had his volley from 20-yards brilliantly saved by Blackman but there was Darius Charles to smash in the rebound to give Wycombe a 2-1 lead.
It was Charles’ second goal of the campaign.
Moments later, Wycombe went 3-1 up when Matt Bloomfield on his 36th birthday fired in his shot from 15-yards which went in off the post.
The second-half was a calmer affair as Rovers struggled to break down the Wycombe backline, and despite efforts from Tony Craig and Clarke-Harris, the Pirates couldn't get back into the game as Wycombe held on for all three points.
The victory means that Wycombe remain in second place and move onto 53 points (the same amount of points they accumulated last season), whilst Rovers stay in 13th position.
Wycombe have only lost one home league match all season.
The Chairboys' next match is against Fleetwood Town on February 11 at Adams Park.
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