Wycombe Web site plea finds a winner

Wandering striker puts Wanderers in FA Cup semi-finals

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 12th March 2001 10:59 GMT

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A player who came forward after a plea for strikers on Wycombe Wanderers Web site has put the second division outfit into the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Roy Essandoh came on from the substitutes bench to dramatically head Wycombe into the last four of the English Cup competition for the first time in its history. His strike clinched an unlikely 2-1 win for Wycombe away from home at Premiership outfit Leicester City's Filbert Street grounds.

Essandoh, a jobbing 25 year-old professional footballer whose previous short term contracts have taken him to Finland and Austria, came forward after Wycombe boss Laurie Sanchez made an appeal for forwards, amidst an injury crisis.

Sanchez issued a plea on the club's Web site for any players who hadn't played for another club in this year's Cup to come forward. The story was picked up on the TV information service Teletext, and also by Essandoh's agent who secured a two week contract for him at the club.

That contract will surely now be renewed, at least until Wycombe's April 8 clash with Liverpool. The encounter will bring back memories and hopes for Wycombe boss Sanchez, who scored Wimbledon's winner against Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final. ®