A DANNIE Bulman equaliser, 17 minutes from time, stopped the Chairboys from conceding defeat in yet another away match.

Martin Taylor was another hero when his save from McPhee's 29th minute penalty prevented Wycombe from going 2-0 down, after Durnin had put Vale 1-0 up just six minutes earlier.

Vale started the match more quickly and vigorously than Wycombe, having several half-chances before the deserved goal came on 23 minutes.

After a Michael Simpson foul on McPhee, John Durnin curled a magnificent shot into the right hand corner of Taylor's goal from the resulting free-kick, stunning Wycombe and giving Vale a 1-0 lead.

Another Michael Simpson blunder on the half-hour mark nearly put Sanchez's men a further goal down when he dubiously handled in the area. Luckily for Wycombe though, Martin Taylor took his manager's advice and chose to dive left, subsequently saving McPhee's spot kick to keep the score at 1-0 as the teams went in for the break.

Wycombe's new central defensive pairing of Roger Johnson and Keith Ryan put in yet another brilliant display to keep Wycombe in with a chance of getting something out of the game.

Sean Devine started the match again, and was working reasonably well up-front with Jermaine McSporran, until 'Jockey' was substituted to make way for the long-awaited return of Andy Baird. Baird was injured in February 2001, in Wycombe's epic FA cup 5th round replay with Wimbledon at Selhurst Park, and was now making his first-team return, after a whole year out.

Baird wasn't having a massive influence on the game, but you could see that the Wycombe faithful were happy just to see him back in action after so long out.

As the second half went on, Wycombe pressed forward more and more, and eventually the equaliser came through Dannie Bulman's fifth goal of the season.

After a smooth move with Stuart Roberts down the right wing, Bulman was left with the ball at his feet, just twelve yards out, and finished cooly to make it 1-1.

Sanchez then replaced the tiring Darren Currie with young Martyn Lee as Wycombe searched for the winner.

For the remaining ten minutes of the game, both teams were searching for the illusive winner, but both defences were too on form to be phased by anything thrown at them by the opposition's attack.

It took Wycombe until the 92nd minute to get the chance to win the game. Stuart Roberts, using every last bit of energy, went on a dazy run, that led to a pass through to Dannie Bulman. His shot was cooly saved though by Goodlad, with Devine waiting anxiously to see if he would fumble it.

The final score was 1-1, and Wycombe managed to finish an away game with 11 men on the field. It leaves them in 11th position in the table, with rivals Reading now leaders.

Port Vale: Goodlad, Carragher, Burns (Ingram 83), Walsh, McClare, Cummins, Durnin, McPhee, Armstrong, Rowland, Atangana (Bridge-Wilkinson 37).

Wycombe: Taylor, Vinnicombe, Senda, Ryan, Johnson, Bulman, Roberts, Currie (Lee 74), Simpson, Devine, McSporran (Baird 57).

Attendance: 4,737

By Sean Bradshaw