Preview: Wycombe Wanderers vs Exeter City - prediction, team news, lineups

Exeter City will head on their travels for Tuesday's League One meeting with Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.

The Chairboys are still searching for their first league win of the season, while the Grecians have won just one of their three opening games in the third tier.

Match preview

Wycombe boss Mike Dodds is under pressure to oversee success in his first full season in charge after he struggled to build upon the foundation laid by Matt Bloomfield.

Dodds, who took over the reins in January, saw his team fall out of the top two and down to fifth position, before they fell to a narrow defeat in the Championship semi-finals against Charlton Athletic.

Unfortunately for the Wycombe boss, his side are still searching for their first league win of the season, although they did at least beat Leyton Orient 1-0 in last Tuesday's EFL Cup clash.

The Chairboys started the league campaign with back-to-back defeats against Bradford City and Stockport County, before they played out a 1-1 draw in Saturday's away meeting with newly-promoted Doncaster Rovers.

Summer addition Junior Quitirna scored his first goal for the club to cancel out Billy Sharp's equaliser, ensuring that his side avoided a third consecutive league defeat.

However, they are still one of six teams yet to win in League One this season, so they may take confidence from the fact that they already beat Exeter at Adams Park in 2025, recording a narrow 2-1 victory when the two sides faced off at the start of the year.

Exeter have finished no higher than 13th place in any of the past four seasons since they won promotion from League Two in 2021/22.

The Grecians will be keen to push on in their fifth consecutive League One campaign, but the early signs suggest that they may struggle with consistency this term.

After losing 1-0 to Doncaster Rovers on matchday one, Gary Caldwell's side officially got their season up and running with an emphatic 4-1 home victory over Blackpool.

However, they have failed to build upon that impressive result, falling to a 2-0 defeat in their EFL Cup first-round clash against Cheltenham Town, before losing 2-1 in Saturday's league meeting with Mansfield at St James Park.

Josh Magennis thought that he rescued a point when he netted a 76th-minute penalty, only for Mansfield's Will Evans to score the winning goal in the 86th minute, condemning Exeter to their first head-to-head home defeat since March 2019.

The Grecian will have to quickly pick themselves up for Tuesday's outing, and while they lost narrowly to Wycombe earlier this year, they have managed to win three of their previous six head-to-head matches (D2, L1).

Wycombe Wanderers League One form:

L L D

Wycombe Wanderers form (all competitions):

L L W D

Exeter City League One form:

L W L L

Exeter City form (all competitions):

L W L L

Team News

Wycombe remain without long-term absentee Josh Scowen, who is currently working on his recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Experienced winger Garath McCleary remains sidelined, while Tuesday’s contest is likely to come too soon for Bradley Fink and Ewan Henderson.

Quitirna, Fred Onyedinma and George Abbott are all pushing to feature in the starting lineup after coming off the bench to play half-an-hour on Saturday.

As for the visitors, Pedro Borges is unavailable for selection due to a knee injury, while Johnly Yfeko is unlikely to feature after missing the first three competitive matches of the season.

Forward Magennis will be hoping to make his first league start of the season after coming off the bench to score in Saturday’s defeat to Mansfield.

At the opposite end of the pitch, Caldwell is expected to keep faith with a back three of Ed Turns, Jack Fitzwater and Sil Swinkels.

Wycombe Wanderers possible starting lineup:

Van Sas; Grimmer, Allen, Hagelskjaer, Harvie; Abbott, Leahy; Quitrina, Mullins, Onyedinma; Udoh

Exeter City possible starting lineup:

Whitworth; Turns, Fitzwater, Swinkels; Niskanen, Brierley, Cole, McMillan; Aitchison; Magennis, Wareham

We say: Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Exeter City

Wycombe will be desperate to claim their first league win of the season, but we think that they may struggle to collect all three points, especially as they have fallen behind in each of their opening three matches in the third tier this term.

With that in mind, we think that the Chairboys will have to settle for a draw, which may suit Exeter as the visiting side.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.