Wycombe Wanderers 0, Huddersfield Town 6.

WANDERERS suffered a case of déjà vu as they were humiliated live on national TV by Huddersfield Town in a record home Football League defeat.

Goal machine Jordan Rhodes put Blues to the sword with an incredible five-goal haul that in no way flattered the Yorkshire side.

In his programme notes manager Gary Waddock branded the performance in Monday’s 2-0 loss at Bournemouth as “unacceptable”.

This was far worse than that.

Defensively Wanderers were all at sea and failed to do even the basics right, presenting chance after chance to a rampant Huddersfield side who sliced through a thoroughly demoralised team who were on their knees by the end.

Last time the two sides faced each other live on national TV the Terriers were 6-0 winners and although they repeated that total they could have scored that many even before half time as they bombarded Nikki Bull’s goal with shots.

They took ten minutes to get going but once in the groove there was no stopping them.

The first of many came about as Huddersfield took advantage of a major Achilles heel for Wanderers in recent weeks, defending set pieces. Another corner was again their undoing as midfielder Oscar Gobern rose unchallenged to head home.

That goal was harsh on Bull, who had produced an outstanding stop to deny Lee Novak after the striker had waltzed past three defenders and fired low towards the bottom corner.

Marcello Trotta had a sniff of a chance at the other end when he fired at Ian Bennett before the home defence were carved apart again. The ball was played out wide to Jack Hunt – whose forays forward were a feature of Huddersfield’s attacking play – and his superb cross was emphatically hammered into the roof of the net by the division’s top marksman Rhodes.

Blues failed to track Hunt then and the man on the other flank, Gary Roberts, was gifted room as Wanderers let him go from a quickly-taken throw and the winger’s shot only just clipped past the post.

Not that Town had to wait long for a third. This time a simple hoik forward from Jamie McCombe was enough to part the Wanderers defence and allow Rhodes to stroll forward unchallenged and roll it past Bull.

With 25 minutes gone it was already game over and from there until half time the Yorkshire side threatened to rack up a cricket score and declare at the interval.

Novak had a shot blocked, Leon Johnson had to clear off the line from Rhodes and the Scotland international missed out on a first half hat-trick when he headed inches over.

The despairing home keeper Bull made his second outstanding save of the night when he tipped Roberts’ curling effort behind for a corner, from which Gobern was again left unmarked but this time he headed off target.

It was more or less one way traffic and all that greeted Johnson’s off target header at the other end were sarcastic cheers.

The second half brought no less respite for the Wanderers backline and within minutes of the restart Rhodes had bagged the match ball. This time referee Steve Tanner played a big part as an attempted pass from Matt Bloomfield hit the official and perfectly picked out the striker. Bull initially foiled him from his first attempt but was powerless to prevent him knocking in the rebound for his 25th goal of the season.

That intervention from the referee was indicative of how bad things were for Blues as it was a better pass than anything produced by a Wanderers player.

To make matters worse Johnson was injured in the melee to prevent a goal and Blues’ thin-looking defence reached anorexic proportions as Marvin McCoy replaced him.

The new-look defence was breached just five minutes later. Danny Ward found space for a shot which was too powerful for Bull to hold and it rolled into the path of Rhodes to gleefully stick into the back of the net for his second four-goal haul of the season.

Incredibly he still wasn’t done. Again Ward was the architect as he scampered clear down the left before his low cross was thumped home by the unstoppable Rhodes.

Half chances came the home side’s way as Gareth Ainsworth’s cross hit the post and Beavon was denied by Bennett before Blues’ miserable evening finally came to an end.

Wanderers: Bull, Foster, Johnson (sub McCoy), Tunnicliffe, Basey, Grant, Bloomfield, Lewis, McNamee (sub Ainsworth), Trotta (sub Halls), Beavon. Substitutes not used: Strevens, Harris.

Attendance: 4,465