Dodds looks for Wycombe upturn before play-offs

Mike Dodds was appointed as Wycombe head coach on 2 February

Wycombe boss Mike Dodds has challenged his side to set a high performance level to carry them into the play-offs after missing out on automatic promotion from League One.

The Chairboys spent much of the season in the top two, heading the table for several weeks, but will have to do it the hard way if they are to regain the Championship status they lost in 2021.

They were second, five points clear of Wrexham, when Dodds was appointed following Matt Bloomfield's departure to Luton Town.

But they have only won seven of his 17 games in charge and have slipped to fourth in the table, below Saturday's opponents, third-placed Stockport County, on goal difference.

"We're fully focused on what we need to do. The game on Saturday is a really tough game but beyond Saturday, there's a bigger picture in terms of the next couple of weeks," Dodds told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"We've got to make sure we understand that we're a really good team at this level and any of those other three teams won't want to be playing Wycombe, that's for sure."

Any result other than a defeat would see Wycombe set a new club points record total since they joined the English Football League in 1994.

Should the game end in a draw, both teams could be joined on 85 points by Charlton Athletic, who are at home to Burton Albion, but the south London club's goal difference is inferior.

Wycombe are likely to play Charlton again in the play-offs if they fail to beat Stockport

Wycombe won five games out of seven from 18 March, losing only one, but have been beaten by Charlton Athletic and Leyton Orient in the last two.

Dodds said the 4-0 home defeat by Charlton felt like a "kick in the abdomen" and the performance at Orient was not good enough either.

But he believes that momentum leading into the play-offs is not an infallible guide to potential success.

"My experience of the play-offs is they're so emotional, there's so much riding on the games, people look at form, look at data, they look at all sorts of things," added the former Sunderland coach.

"There are counter arguments either way. There'll be the teams that have gone into the play-offs (in the past) on the back of winning five, six, seven, eight games and not got promoted and there'll be history of teams that have not had that form and got promoted.

"They're a completely unique set of circumstances in terms of going into what is effectively a knockout competition over two legs."

On the potential points record, he added: "87 is a huge number for the club and something everybody associated should be proud of. The result will be the result, but what I want to see is a much better performance."