AFTER the storm, the calm.

Seven goals and late, late drama at Valley Parade followed by a stop-start slog in Buckinghamshire which saw just four shots on target.

There was none of the last-gasp euphoria of Shrewsbury. City may have added another precious point to their survival mission but it was stodgy stuff.

But then that’s how Wycombe tend to like it. They are a team of spoilers who have clawed their way into the top 10 on the back of frustrating and ultimately wearing down the opposition.

Fair play, it’s an effective method which has seen Gareth Ainsworth’s side defy the doom and gloom predictions of instant relegation.

But it’s just as hard to watch as to play against.

The ball goes long, the tackles don’t hold back, the flow is constantly broken up. Home keeper Ryan Allsop seems happy to take an age with goal kicks – anything to stop the visitors from building a momentum.

So, while clearly a bit down at not doing more to win the game, at least City could feel they did not fall into Wycombe’s trap.

“Derek Adams spoke about it when he went there with Plymouth,” said David Hopkin. “They got beaten 1-0 and he was saying it’s a frustrating place.

“I said to the players before the game that we had to make sure we didn’t go a goal behind. It’s a very difficult place to try and get back into it because they slow the play.

“But our normal game has a high tempo and that perhaps just wasn’t there. We lacked that bit of intensity in the final third of the pitch.”

But it’s not just with Wycombe that you know you what you’re going to get - you could almost say the same about big refereeing calls.

Usual controversy, usual huge shout for justice, usual inaction from the officials. “Nothing to see here, move on.”

Add the non-penalty call in the first half to a bulging file of key decisions that have got away from City.

Yes, I know moaning about referees makes for a boring read.

Some will say they make less mistakes than the players and are just a convenient get-out clause for managers to cover up their team’s own shortcomings.

But – and stop me if you’ve heard this before – in City’s case, that argument is hardly valid.

These are pivotal moments in a season that remains precariously balanced.

Think Boxing Day and how Jack Payne’s clear equaliser was somehow missed. Think the Bristol Rovers hand ball on the line at Valley Parade early on in Hopkin’s reign.

Think last week’s shove in the back on Lewis O’Brien as he bore down on Burton’s goal.

Now add to that the goalline “clearance” that Wycombe got away with on Saturday.

The videos that quickly popped up on social media dispelled any suggestions that Curtis Thompson had denied Eoin Doyle’s shot by legal methods.

The ball struck the top of an outstretched right arm – Hopkin even claimed he could hear the noise from the dug-out – and then on to his chest before being hoiked away.

City stood dumbstruck with arms aloft waiting for a whistle that never came from Sheffield referee Tom Bramall. The natural reaction of the players was surely the clearest indicator but the man who mattered was having none of it.

And that’s without mentioning the clear yank on Jack Payne’s shirt in the scramble leading to the Doyle chance.

Wycombe would later have their own penalty appeal waved away after the excellent Paul Caddis fell on the ball. But he had been nudged into it and Bramall rightly gave nothing.

That hardly levels the score and once more the trip back north was accompanied with a familiar sense of injustice. We should have grown hardened to it by now but that doesn’t make it right.

Whatever your stance on VAR, and I’m no fan of bringing games to a halt for someone to consult the video, but it cannot be right when critical moments are checked in one division but not the rest.

All matches are filmed anyway, so for certain instances, the controversy at the Stadium of Light being an obvious one, surely there can be some kind of review system put in place.

Failing that, maybe someone should have run on and shown Mr Bramall the replay on their mobile.

Not that he was the sole reason that City did not claim the victory that would have lifted them into the nose-bleed territory of 18th place.

Doyle should have buried it when the ball was bobbling around the goal-mouth six yards out. He also should have hit the target with a glancing header right on half-time.

And there were a couple of close calls in the second half when low crosses from Caddis and Connor Wood were crying out to be touched in.

But Allsop did not have a save to make – the only goal-bound effort being dealt with by midfielder Thompson.

Not that Richard O’Donnell was much busier, other than pushing away one shot from Scott Kashket.

There was no Adebayo Akinfenwa to worry about this time as a groin injury ruled out the Beast.

But City still had to show defensive diligence and their best performers were at the back.

Caddis once again demonstrated all his experience while centre halves Anthony O’Connor and Nathaniel Knight-Percival won pretty much everything in the air.

And Adam Chicksen was worthy of his recall for the injured Calum Woods with a solid shift at left back.

City fans hoping to get a glimpse of deadline-day duo Jacob Butterfield and Billy Clarke had to wait until the final knockings.

Clarke was limited to just a couple of touches in his couple of minutes’ cameo but Butterfield produced one surge over the halfway line which immediately caught the eye.

There wasn’t too much else to capture the imagination other than another point in the bank.

It was the first draw between the two sides after 14 meetings. But hardly an “I was there” occasion.