CAPTAIN Gareth Ainsworth has called on his Wycombe Wanderers team-mates to show greater responsibility after they were hammered at home by Huddersfield last night.
The club skipper said the players let manager Gary Waddock down with an inept performance that saw Blues suffer their heaviest ever home Football League defeat as they were stuffed 6-0.
Dozens of watching scouts, including Stuart Pearce and Spurs duo Joe Jordan and Clive Allen, saw Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes do most of the damage with a five goal haul but he was helped by a shambolic Blues display as the home defence opened up time and time again.
Matt Bloomfield apologised to fans for Wanderers’ showing in defeat to Bournemouth last time out and Ainsworth was moved to do the same as Blues were humiliated in front of the Sky TV cameras.
But the veteran winger also said the players owed the manager a vast improvement.
He said: “None of us performed. We’ve got to take responsibility as a club, the players especially. The gaffer’s brought us all here and nobody performed for him tonight so I feel sorry for the gaffer. We let him down.
“It always seems to come down on the manager. That wasn’t his fault, the players have to take responsibility. We definitely owe Gary a performance.
“There’s usually positives to take out of any game but I’m struggling to find them out of that game. It was a very under par performance from ourselves.”
Wanderers looked to have been turning a corner as some good results in December took them out of the bottom four, but three consecutive defeats – during which time Blues haven’t managed a goal – have plunged them back into the mire.
And that’s deservedly so, according to Ainsworth.
He said: “If we thought we were going to be out of the relegation battle, I think this firmly cements where we are in this league.
“I hope it does hurt [the rest of the team] because it’s hurting me and I know it’ll hurt the gaffer. Hopefully everyone’s feeling it and they’ll be even more determined to put it right next week.”
Blues will look to get their season back on track at Preston North End next week.
It’s the club where Ainsworth made his Football League debut as a teenager but all thoughts of nostalgia have been firmly kicked into touch by the Blues captain.
He said: “Preston’s the furthest thing from my mind right now. We have to work to try and put this right. There’s many issues to address and hopefully we can get them all in order for next Saturday.”
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