Wycombe Wanderers v Reading
Sky Bet League One
Adams Park
Adams Park
Saturday 25th November 2023
3pm
Journey Time to the ground: 55 minutes. We were staying with friends in Wokingham for the night as they had managed to secure us hospitality tickets for Reading's game at Wycombe. It was decided we'd get a taxi to and from the ground as Adams Park is quite a way from the train station. The taxi picked us up from our friends house at 12:40pm and dropped us outside the group just before 1:30pm. We made our way straight into the ground and were treated to a pie, mash and winter vegetables for lunch, followed by a chocolate brownie.
Ticket Price: Free as we were in hospitality, however tickets in the away end were £27.
Programme Price: Wycombe no longer produce a programme, however we were provided with a free teamsheet.
Attendance: 7,073 with 1,851 Reading fans.
I have been to Adams Park more times than I can remember but this was my first visit in over twenty years. Our hospitality seats were part of the Woodlands Executive Lounge which is housed between the two-tiers of the large all-seater Frank Adams Stand which is the biggest stand at Adams Park. The actual lounge housed a bar and comfortable dining area with windows which had curtains pulled so the game could only be viewed from outside. We were situated halfway between the goal and halfway line on one side of the pitch, and had a good view of the whole pitch. The legroom and seats were very comfortable.
To the left of the Frank Adams Stand is the Home Terrace, which is single-tiered and where the most vociferous Wycombe fans seemed to congregate. Opposite the Frank Adams Stand is the Origin Stand. This small single-tiered all-seater stand is the main stand at Adams Park and housed the team dug-outs at its front. To the right of the Frank Adams Stand is the Whiffaway Stand, a single-tiered all-seater stand which houses away fans and was sold out on this occassion.
Reading and Wycombe had met in the Championship during the Covid lockdown season so this was the first league game played in front of fans since 2002. Reading had also now gone a calendar year without an away win in the league so fans were definitely travelling more in hope than expectation to our closest away game of the season.
Reading took the lead on the half-hour mark with Sam Smith getting a deft touch on Femi Azeez's left-wing cross after a poor clearance from Max Stryjek. The goal followed a lengthy break after Dom Ballard was stretchered off and one of our travelling party missed it as he had made a mis-timed trip to the toilets! Wycombe hit straight back, equalising just two minutes later when Killian Phillips curled in a lovely effort from just inside the box. Reading regained the lead five minutes before the break when ex-Chairboy Lewis Wing's deflected effort found the back of the net from Azeez's neat pass. The goal was again missed by the same member of our party as he had decided to head into the bar to get the drinks in before the half-time rush!
With Reading having a tendency to concede goals, especially late in the game, I was anticipating a nervy second-half. However, this never really materialised with Reading going closest to scoring again when Smith forced Stryjek into a neat save at his near post, and Reading held on to pick up three points on the road for the first time since November 2022!
Atmosphere: The atmosphere was quite muted due to us being in hospitality, although there was probably a 50/50 Wycombe Reading split within the Woodlands Lounge. The Wycombe fans didn't have too much to shout about and although the atmosphere in the away end looked good, the sound didn't really seem to travel to where we were sat.
Journey Time home: 1 hour 25 minutes. With the taxi being booked for 5:20pm, we had one more drink before heading to meet the taxi. Unfortunately the traffic heading away from Adams Park was very heavy and it took us almost 45 minutes to get out of Wycombe and onto the A404. Due to the amount of alcohol consumed the taxi driver was forced to make an unscheduled stop on the A404 to allow three of us to relieve ourselves before making the journey back to Wokingham. We arrived at our friends house just before 6:45pm.
I really enjoyed my trip to Wycombe. The hospitality experience was excellent, as was the company, and I got to see Reading win a game live for the first time since February 2020! What more could you want?!
