Gareth Ainsworth has revealed he felt ‘sorry’ for the three players he took off in a triple substitution, during the 2-1 home defeat against Coventry City.
Daryl Horgan, Matt Bloomfield and Alex Samuel were all hooked in the 58th minute for Garath McCleary, David Wheeler and Adebayo Akinfenwa respectively.
Three minutes later, Akinfenwa’s header was met by Wheeler who was then fouled by Ben Sheaf in the penalty area.
READ MORE: FT at Adams Park: Wycombe 1-2 Coventry: Injury-time equaliser ruled out for offside
Joe Jacobson took the resulting spot-kick and scored his second goal in two matches.
Speaking after the game, he said: “I don't like doing that [making a triple sub], because the players on the pitch are more than capable of winning this game.
“Two individual mistakes have cost their places in the team – it cost me to make three changes.
“Daryl Horgan, Matt Bloomfield and Alex Samuel are well capable, so it is not like they’re not good enough.
"We have had to do this to change the impotence of the game.
“I feel sorry for those guys as they are capable of winning and we showed that.
“I thought we were by far the better team.”
The defeat means Wycombe have only won one game against Coventry in the 11 matches they have played each other, with the Sky Blues winning the other 10.
The Chairboys remain in 23rd place, just two points off the bottom and two points away from safety, and despite a trip to Bournemouth on Tuesday night, a side who are one of the favourites to go up this up season, Ainsworth is remaining positive.
He continued: “We’re in the Championship competing week in, week out.
“It is not like teams are carving us apart.
"It was individual mistakes, and that is really important for me to take the positives out of that.
“All the players should have their heads held up high as we deserved the point but we didn’t get it.”
On the fixture against the Cherries, he added: “The players are absolutely picked up, and if I lose my emotional control then all the players will too.
"So if I stay totally focused on a positive performance, the boys will take heat from that.”
He also revealed that Uche Ikpeazu is ‘days away’ from returning to the team whilst Ryan Tafazolli could be in contention for the Boxing Day fixture against Bristol City.
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