Wycombe Wanderers head coach Gareth Ainsworth has told Get Bucks that Will de Havilland earned his place in the first team through hard work.
De Havilland signed for the Chairboys in the summer after being released from Sheffield Wednesday but has struggled to break into the first team this year. Aaron Pierre and Anthony Stewart have been able to form a formidable partnership this season which de Havilland has struggled to break into, meaning that he has only been able to get chances in the first team in the cup competitions.
However he got just his second league start at the weekend in the match against Doncaster Rovers, a surprise as most expected that they would continue with the partnership of Pierre and Stewart. And his manager Ainsworth has revealed that the reason de Havilland got a chance to play was because he had been working very hard on the training ground to show why he should be in the first team.
Ainsworth said: “In the last couple of games, he’d (Stewart) just had a bit of a blip, and it’s Will’s turn to come in and show what he can do.”
“It’s only right you reward people, and Will’s been doing well in training. It’s not a gamble for me, although he’s in the first year of his career – he’s got to learn and get experience somewhere.”
“You can only wait so long if you see a few mistakes from people in your position. Will did well in the second half, although in the first half our back four looked a little bit spread apart.”
