Gareth Ainsworth admitted he was relieved to make it to half time unscathed after Wanderers received a first half battering by Portsmouth this afternoon.

Pompey spurned several good chances to go in front courtesy of some profligate finishing from Matt Tubbs and Blues keeper Matt Ingram enhancing his ever-growing reputation once more with some fine saves.

Wanderers lost the midfield battle and blew a big collective sigh of relief to make it through to the interval with the game still goalless.

The scoreline was the same at the end of the game as it was at the start, with Ainsworth stating his belief a draw was a fair result after his side improved after the break following the introduction of Aaron Holloway.

The Welshman proved himself a thorn in Portsmouth’s side, to the extent Ainsworth declared himself disappointed not to have won the game in the second half.

He said: “I thought it was a total game of two halves. Portsmouth had all the play first half, Wycombe had all the play second half. We hit the crossbar, they had a one-on-one – it’s probably a fair result for both teams.

“The domination of both halves by both teams, if it had been 3-3 you’d have said that was a fair result.

“I’d have been relieved at half time but full time, no definitely not relieved. I’m disappointed we didn’t make our pressure count second half.”

Stern words were said at half time, but Ainsworth said the biggest contributory factor on the game was the wind blowing from one end of the pitch to the other.

The gusts held up Ingram’s goalkicks and swept them back from whence they came during the first half, before Wycombe’s highly-rated stopper was able to launch attacks by booming his kicks downfield in the second.

Ainsworth said: “I honestly thought the wind played a big part, especially the kicks. We wanted to play out a bit but Portsmouth were pressing us high and making us kick long. They had done their homework. It’s games like this where you’ve got to be clever and come up with something else.

“I did [lay into them] but the goalkeepers’ kicks were a great indication of how blustery it was. Matt Ingram wasn’t reaching the halfway line in the first half – second half he’s kicked it to their 18 yard box.”

Had skipper Paul Hayes been available Blues may well have snatched something, but all too often there was nobody showing the striker’s knowhow by waiting in the box for scraps to feed off.

Ainsworth said: “I’m more happy with the clean sheet, I just want to find that goalscoring touch again. We want to start hitting the back of the net and we were close today. Paul Hayes’ injury was a big miss for us.

“We created some good chances, it’s just that final touch that eluded us today. We did seem like we were going to get something towards the end. The crowd felt it, I smelt it a little bit, but it wasn’t to be.

“They are down. They feel like, all season, with the standards we’ve set – the pedestal we’ve put ourselves on – we want to keep that going. But I’ve told them don’t judge that. There’s no benchmark. You play as well as you can, and at the end of the season the table won’t lie.”