Former Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth has reflected on the club’s 2013/14 season where the club avoided relegation to the Non League.

Speaking on Undr the Cosh podcast with former footballers Jon Parkin and Chris Brown, along with comedian Chris Brown, the 51-year-old admitted that if the Adams Park side had dropped into the National League, it would have been ‘the end’ for the club.

Wycombe had spent the vast majority of that year near the foot of the table in what was Ainsworth’s first full year as manager, having spent the previous season as player-manager.

Despite their poor season, which included a run of one league victory in 17 matches, the Chairboys managed to avoid relegation with a 3-0 win away at already relegated Torquay United.

This, coupled with Bristol Rovers’ 1-0 home loss to Mansfield Town, meant that Rovers were demoted into the fifth tier of English football for the first time in nearly 100 years.

Ainsworth also admitted that after the season had ended, he knew that he had to ‘separate’ himself as manager from the rest of the players.

He said: “Gary Waddock was the manager when I signed and one thing I’ll say about Gary Waddock is that he probably knew, and this is a testament to the guy that he is because he’s a top guy, he probably saw me as the next manager.

“I came in purely as a player as I had no intention of anything [becoming Wycombe manager], but he made me first-team coach and it went pretty bad that year [2012].

“The team let him down, the team weren’t great.

“Me included as I was part of that squad and he got the sack, but the trust owned Wycombe and we had absolutely no money at all.

“We were in real trouble but they gave me the caretaker manager job and I never looked back but I had a bad first [full] year].

“We stayed up on the last day at Torquay and that is a famous game for Wycombe, as we were three points adrift from Bristol Rovers who were playing Mansfield at home.

“We win our game 3-0 at Torquay, who were already relegated, but Mansfield turned up to Bristol and had forgotten their kit.

“So I’m thinking, they’re not taking this seriously, but Mansfield beat Bristol Rovers in Bristol Rovers’ away kit and we stayed up.”

When asked by Parkin what would have happened to Wycombe if they were relegated, Ainsworth simply said: “End.

"I’m telling you now, that club was in a tough, tough, place.

“We had an owner, but the fans wanted to take the club off the owner.

“He wanted to move to a new stadium and make a go of it, but they wouldn’t let him, so the fans took it over.

“You need so much money to run a football club and the fans just didn’t have it.

“Going into the Conference would have been on me, and that weighed heavy [during the season].

“That was a really big day and from then, I thought, ‘I’m not Gaz, of Gary or Gareth or mate, but gaffer’.

“I was Gaz or Gareth as I played with half of them, but you need that bit of separation from the boys because you’re going to drop players, sorting out contracts…I couldn’t be Gaz the mate.”