Football story by Gareth Bowman, Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:32:00 GMT


League Two side Wycombe Wanderers piled further misery on Chelsea holding them to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-finals last night. Jermaine Easter was the hero for the League Two team scoring a late goal to neutralize Wayne Bridge's strike.

The result was another setback for Chelsea who have had a nightmarish time ever since they lost John Terry to injury. It looked like Jose Mourinho's side were going to end up winners yesterday, as Wycombe appeared to have given up. However Easter injected fresh life into the team when he put Tommy Mooney's flick beyond Hilario in the Chelsea goal.

Advertisment

Mourinho put in Michael Essien to partner Paulo Ferreira in the central defense and both players gave all in this unfamiliar position. Chelsea were without Didier Drogba and Andrei Shevchenko; the former due to suspension and the latter due to injury.

Wycombe began in a bustling fashion having already accounted for Fulham and Charlton on the way to the semi-finals. They exuded confidence and even tested Hilario a couple of times. But Wayne Bridge put the Blues ahead on 36 minutes and after that Wycombe looked listless. However in the second half they came hard and were rewarded with Easter's goal.

The two teams will clash again for the second leg at Stamford Bridge on 23 January.

Mourinho was satisfied despite the draw, "I am happy with the result and the effort, but not the performance," he said. "But I cannot criticize Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira for the goal. For people who never play at centre-back, I thought they did very well. We still have to play at Stamford Bridge so we are in a good position."

Wycombe manager Paul Lambert was delighted with his team's showing. "We were absolutely brilliant to come back against a world class side. Their goal took a bit of stuffing out of us but I thought we were excellent in the second half," he said.