“I can handle disappointment, but what hurts about this one is that it feels utterly self-inflicted”

Very much a season of two halves at Wycombe, as Jonny King explains

May 25, 2025

Sunday 25 May 2025

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DESMOND’S COMEDY CLUB: Friday 30 May at The Fingerpost. Show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Line-up includes Freddy Quinne, Kie Carson, Will Smith (pictured below) and Eddie Fortune. Drop me an email if you’d like to join us!

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Wycombe supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Sunday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

It’s the League One play-off final at Wembley this afternoon. That fixture could easily have been Wycombe Wanderers v Stockport County, but both sides suffered late heartbreak in the semi-finals. Wycombe conceded an 81st minute goal at Charlton, whilst County lost to Leyton Orient on penalties.

That’s not the only shared experience between the Chairboys and the Hatters this season. Both sides were top of League One during the campaign. As enjoyable as it was being top of the table during August, I don’t think many County fans expected us to be there at the end of the season. For Wycombe, however, the comedown feels a lot harder to swallow. They were at the League One summit just a couple of days before Christmas Day, but fell away from the automatic promotion places after losing their manager to Luton. An extremely difficult second half to the season at Adams Park, as Jonny King from The Wanderer fanzine explains.

As you can see from the photos above, I was at Edgeley Park for the visit of Wycombe on a cold Tuesday night in November. I was also in a jubilant away end at Adams Park on the final day of the season as County clinched 3rd place. In fact, for the first time in my life, I’ve been to every single County game this season – all 56 of them! I’ve written a book about my adventures this season. If you’d like to support the publication by having your name printed in the book (along with a signed copy and a ticket to the book launch) drop me an email.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Gas Care. A big thank you to Carl.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 253.75 miles

Total steps so far: 418,084

Total raised so far: £2,312

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

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Wycombe were looking nailed on for automatic promotion before Christmas, but their season ended with play-off heartbreak at Charlton

Best moment of 2024-25?

I don’t know if you can necessarily call this a “moment”, but I’ll go for the 11-game winning streak which ran from the start of October to the end of November. Under Matt Bloomfield, we played some scintillating football, scoring 27 goals and conceding just 8, racking up some memorable wins: Richard Kone’s nine-minute hat-trick off the bench against Peterborough, a 3-0 win over Leyton Orient, Luke Leahy’s stoppage-time winner against Mansfield and, yes, that game at Edgeley Park…

Worst moment of 2024-25?

Matt Bloomfield leaving for Luton at the start of the year – and basically, pretty much everything that happened after that. The only people who really know what happened are Bloomfield and the board, but there had been rumblings that things were not well behind the scenes for some weeks before he left and there is a strong suggestion that Blooms was forced out. I still maintain that a happy Bloomfield would have stayed at Adams Park and had he done so, I think the season would have ended very differently. I can handle disappointment, but what hurts about this one is that it feels utterly self-inflicted.

Funniest moment of 2024-25?

Seeing the odious Steve Evans spontaneously combust after our 2-0 win over Rotherham at Adams Park – a game Evans later insisted his side “dominated”. As ungracious in defeat as he was in victory the previous season, he angrily confronted Bloomfield at full-time. Blooms shook his hand, laughed, and walked off, leaving Evans shouting into the void.

The Birmingham Boasters and the Wrexham Wazzocks seem to have annoyed a lot of fans in League One this season. Which one are you most glad to see the back of?

I generally didn’t mind the Wrexham fans to be honest. Obviously every club has its whoppers, including Wycombe, but the true Wrexham fans have been through so much over the last 25-odd years, it’s hard to begrudge them a bit of joy now. I certainly won’t miss the American bandwagon jumpers on Twitter telling us how much “the Wycombe Chairboys suck at soccer” though…

Birmingham are a weird bunch. Failed dismally in the Championship, spunked more on one player than many clubs at this level have spent combined in their entire history, and lost the BDSM final to Peterborough, but nonetheless declared themselves the greatest side in the history of football after topping a phenomenally weak league by winning a bunch of games 1-0 with 80% possession. Fair play, but I really didn’t understand the constant crowing and lack of humility, when they had to drop down to the third tier and spend an insane amount of money to have a bit of success. Personally, I’d much rather support a small club that overachieves than a bigger club that constantly fails.

Reform have been making a lot of noise recently. Based on this season, what’s in most need of reform at Wycombe, on or off the pitch?

Jesus, how long have you got? On the pitch, we need to reform our playing style from the current ultra-defensive, shot-shy rubbish of recent months and try to get back to something closer to the football we know these players are capable of. If we can’t do that by November, then we may need to think about reforming the manager.

Off the pitch, whilst the new owners have undoubtedly done a lot of good stuff, there have also been times where it’s felt like the club is being run similar to a task on The Apprentice. I hope they can learn to adjust their approach to align themselves more with Wycombe’s culture and core values, rather than trying to turn us into some sort of lower league Chelsea. They are clearly very ambitious and perhaps impatient for success, but there is a feeling among many supporters that some of the soul has gone out of the club.

Four Four Two had you down to finish 13th, EFL pundit Gabriel Sutton thought you’d finish 9th, while the Opta supercomputer predicted you’d be 9th. You finished 5th. Discuss.

That’s the thing I suppose. I would have bitten your entire upper body off if you’d offered me that at the start of the season, but after a blistering first half of the season under Bloomfield, I think it was reasonable for Wycombe fans to then readjust their expectations for the rest of the campaign.

Unfortunately, we completely capitulated under Mike Dodds and it was hard not to feel demoralised by that, in spite of the obvious positives of achieving a play-off place. Despite finishing in the top six, the second half of the season was so poor that many Wycombe fans had very low expectations heading into the semi-final against Charlton.

Wycombe inflicted County’s biggest defeat of the season (Photo credit: Mike Petch)

County 0 Wycombe 5 in November. Wycombe 1 County 3 in May. Thoughts?

There are probably better examples – Leyton Orient for example – but the two games against County pretty much sum up our season, as we went from being one of the most exciting, high-scoring teams in the league, to one that looked like they were being made to play matches after 24 hours with no sleep. The really confounding part was that this was virtually the same group of players who had been running riot under Blooms, as half of our January signings subsequently spent the next four months watching from the sidelines (another source of frustration with the ownership group).

The disruption in the dugout and the failure to properly strengthen in the window led to a decline in results that was as demoralising as it was predictable, as we somehow went from looking pretty assured in second place, to eventually hobbling over the line in fifth.

Best and worst away days of 2024-25?

Best was probably Shrewsbury, both for the performance and the emotional reunion with Gareth Ainsworth and Richard Dobson. Stevenage would also have been a good day out, if it hadn’t been for it being in Stevenage.

Worst probably has to be Leyton Orient – a really nice ground to visit (and a good supporters’ bar!) but a thoroughly depressing day on the pitch, as a Wycombe side unrecognisable from the 3-0 victors in the earlier meeting, meekly handed automatic promotion over to Wrexham.

Which Wycombe player is most deserving of his couple of weeks on the beach this summer?

Well I would say Richard Kone, but he’s just been called up to the Ivory Coast Under-23 side, so I guess he’ll be spending his summer doing that.

My second pick would be all-action midfielder Josh Scowen, but unfortunately he’ll have plenty of time to relax, as he’ll miss most of next season thanks to a shocking challenge by Leyton Orient’s Ethan Galbraith, which apparently only warranted a booking. Not that I’m bitter about it or anything…

Never mind Welcome to Wrexham on Disney+, a TV production company have just made Wycombe Wanderers: The Story of 2024-25. Which channel would it be most suited for?

Any subscription-based streamer – just so long as they offer a week’s free trial, so I can binge-watch the first half of the series and then sack off the rest of it.

And finally, apologies for darkening the mood, but you’ve only got 30 seconds to live. Putin’s pressed the red button and we’re all about to die. You can have one last moment of pleasure, watching a single Wycombe goal from this season. What you sticking on?

To what I imagine would be the utter indignation of my wife, I would spend my last 30 seconds watching Dan Harvie’s goal at Bristol Rovers – picking up the ball courtesy of a defence-splitting pass from Aaron Morley, cutting inside his man so clinically the poor guy fell over himself, before curling a shot from the edge of the area, with his weaker right foot, into the top corner. Not bad for a full-back!

➡️ Any Wycombe fans joining us today? As stated above, I’ve written a book having watched every County game home and away this season. There’s obviously two big chapters on Wycombe included (home and away). Also, as I celebrated my 40th birthday this season, I’ve written about my four decades as a County fan as well, which I’m hoping will be an enjoyable read for anyone who supports a lower league club. There’s memories of beating four Premier League clubs as County reached the Coca-Cola Cup semi-finals in 1996-97, the club’s rise from the National League North to the brink of the Championship over the last few years, and the tale of a trip to Blackpool 20 years ago when me and my mates had a run-in with armed police after a day on the ale…

If you’d like to support the book, click on the link below to become a paid subscriber and I’ll post you a signed copy with your name printed inside once it’s published.

Book a slot with Gas Care to have your boiler serviced

It’s not exactly the most exciting date on the calendar, but an annual service for your boiler is a vital one. It ensures your boiler stays energy efficient, extends its life, and helps you avoid costly repairs. Gas Care offers a simple pricing structure for boiler services: £90 all in.

➡️ Book an appointment today by visiting gas.care.

Photo of the day

Adams Park, Wycombe

The month of May ultimately ended in heartbreak for County fans, but it started positively. County clinched 3rd place with a 3-1 win at Wycombe on the final day of the season, which sparked off a conga in the away end during the second half!

Today in SK

🎟️ Events

Family Funday at The Steelworks (SK6). Special guests include Vernon the Bear and two Stockport VIPs. Loads of other stuff going on as well.

🍴 Food and drink

Enjoy a delicious Sunday roast at The Crown (SK2) or The Three Tunnes (SK7) with homemade Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings. 12pm - 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Alexandra (SK3), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Cross Keys (SK8), and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks and a bite to eat.

🎱 Free pool

The Nelson Tavern (SK1). 8pm - 11pm.

🎸 Live music

Tim Hoad (4pm - 6pm) and IndiGlow (7pm - 9pm) at Flute & Firkin (SK12).

Random snippets from old County programmes

#44 – County v Colchester, 1 January 1982

County’s programme on New Year’s Day 1982 included a photo from a dramatic car crash outside Gresty Road a few weeks earlier.

Remember the other week we said that there had been a freak accident to the Crewe Alexandra club shop. Well as you can see there wasn’t an awful lot left after a motorist had taken the wrong route after suffering a severe heart attack whilst at the wheel.

Had Crewe Alexandra been at home on the Saturday afternoon that the accident happened, the club shop would have been filled with many supporters buying programmes and souvenirs. Thankfully Crewe had played at Edgeley Park the night before and all that unnecessary suffering had been avoided.