Burnley set for clash with league leaders

Last updated : 07 November 2008 By Tony Scholes

In the first game following the last international break we played Birmingham at home. They were top of the league at the time but our draw that day against them allowed Wolves to go back to the top and that's where they are right now.

It's been a tough few weeks. Birmingham, Wolves and Reading are considered to be the best three clubs in the division and by tomorrow evening we will have played four games against them in five weeks.

Not as though it is going to get any easier. We go to Chelsea next Wednesday and then find ourselves at the very overpriced Loftus Road to take on the division's moneybags QPR next weekend.

But we are proving ourselves more than capable of playing in these sort of games and as Owen Coyle says, it is tough but a week to be enjoyed.

Our Opponents


I tipped Wolves for promotion last season but they missed out again, even missing out on the play offs on goal difference with fast plummeting Watford sneaking in ahead of them for the dubious pleasure of getting hammered by Hull.

Wolves have money to spend and manager Mick McCarthy spent some it over the summer. There was something of a clear out which included the reluctant sale of Seyi George Olofinjana to Stoke although they did good business in getting rid of both Jay Bothroyd and Freddy Eastwood to Cardiff and Coventry respectively.

There were seven new signings, and some impressive ones at that. It started with the capture young Bournemouth striker Sam Vokes in May and by the end of June Leicester right back Richard Stearman and Derby midfielder David Jones had signed.

There was just one more signing before the season got underway and that was Chris Iwelumo. He'd had a brilliant 2006/07 season with Colchester but like most strikers had flopped at Charlton in the following season and so made the move to Wolves.

On the last day of the transfer window Molineux was busy. In came George Friend from Exeter and Norwich central defender Jason Shackell along with Preston's Matt Hill who moved in a swap deal with Stephen Elliott.

If that's not enough McCarthy signed two loan players in October, Carlos Edwards from RK Sunderland and young Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne who has had previous loans with QPR.

They are currently, like ourselves on a good run, and having suffered a difficult to believe 5-2 defeat at Norwich they have recovered with three straight wins.

Click HERE to see all Wolves' results this season


Wolves were never expected to be outside the top few clubs in the Championship. That's where they've been since the start of the season and that's where I expect them to stay.

Team News


Mick McCarthy has been boosted with the return to fitness of Matt Hill and Jody Craddock. Hill has spent all of his time on the sidelines since arriving from Preston at the end of August and Craddock returns after a broken toe.

Even so, neither of them are expected to feature in the match day squad and McCarthy is expected to stick with the sixteen who were on duty last week when they beat Cardiff at Ninian Park.

That team was: Carl Ikeme, Kevin Foley, Richard Stearman, Michael Mancienne, Michael Gray, Michael Kightly, Karl Henry, David Jones, Steven Ward, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Chris Iwelumo. Subs: Wayne Hennessey, Neill Collins, David Edwards, Carlos Edwards, Andy Keogh.

Click HERE to see the full Wolves squad


Illness has hit the Burnley squad again this week and it was reported that Clarke Carlisle, Remco van der Schaaf and Alex MacDonald were all sent home from training on Thursday. To add to that Christian Kalvenes is still out of the side with the injury sustained in the win against Reading.

The good news for us is that Carlisle was back with the rest of the squad this morning and is expected to be fit enough to continue at Molineux.

Owen Coyle insists that players coming in and playing well will keep their shirts so given the quality of the performance last week when we beat Norwich it isn't likely we'll see any changes if everyone is available.

Burnley's expected line up: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles, Robbie Blake, Steven Thompson. Subs: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Kevin McDonald, Jay Rodriguez, Martin Paterson.

Last Season


Robbie Blake
Robbie Blake - man of the match in a fantastic team performance
On the day Owen Coyle became Burnley manager Watford were at the top of the Championship, Charlton were second and Wolves fifth. They were to be his first three away games in charge.

We sensationally won 2-1 at Watford and then followed it up four days later with a 3-1 win at the Valley against Charlton. Surely we couldn't make it three out of three at Molineux and in front of the television cameras. The answer was yes we could.

'Welcome to dreamland' I wrote in my report. It felt like it after a third superb away performance had us leaving Molineux just a point behind Wolves with a game in hand and believing we could reach the promised land.

Young Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey had made one brilliant stop to keep the score at 0-0 but then made the blunder that gave us the lead as he allowed a Robbie Blake free kick to somehow get under his body and into the net.

It was no more than we deserved. We were well on top and it was a surprise when Wolves equalised, but we just came storming back and scored the goal of the game. Alan Mahon, in brilliant form again, took a quick free kick from the centre circle out to Wade Elliott on the right wing.

Confronted by two defenders Wade turned inside and whipped in a left foot cross for Kyle Lafferty to hit home at the far post. Back in front and a 2-1 lead at half time would have been good, but we got a third. Hennessey did well to deny Andy Gray at the expense of a corner.

Taken by Robbie it was Clarke Carlisle who got up to head for goal and the deflection of Darren Ward left the keeper with no chance.

Half time and 3-1 up at Wolves, it was hard to take in. We'd not scored three in a game there in all my years of watching Burnley.

Wolves did pull one back from the penalty spot in the second half but there was no way they were going to get anything from this one and when they hit balls into our box we defender superbly with David Unsworth winning just about everything.

We might not have been able to sustain that sort of form and we didn't win again for another eight games, but that was some performance that day. Now hopefully for something similar this season.

The teams last season were;

Wolves: Wayne Hennessey, Kevin Foley, Darren Ward, Neill Collins, Michael Gray, Darren Gibson (Freddy Eastwood 60), Karl Henry, Seyi Olofinjana, Stephen Ward (Matthew Jarvis 71), Jay Bothroyd (Andy Keogh 72), Stephen Elliott. Subs not used: Carl Ikeme, Rob Edwards.

Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, David Unsworth, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Alan Mahon (Joey Gudjonsson 68), Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake (James O'Connor 82), Andy Gray (Ade Akinbiyi 88). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Steve Jones.

Previous games against Wolves


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1994/95

1

h

0-1

17,766

.

.

.

a

0-2

25,703

.

2000/01

1

a

0-1

20,156

.

..

h

1-2

15,483

Branch

2001/02

1

a

0-3

24,893

.

..

h

2-3

21,823

I Moore Johnson

2002/03

1

a

0-3

25,031

.

.

.

h

2-1

18,641

Taylor West

2003/04

LC

a

0-2

18,548

.

2004/05

C

h

1-1

13,869

Blake

.

LC

h

1-1

5,013

Blake - won 4-2 on penalties

.

C

a

0-2

24,336

.

2005/06

C

a

1-0

21,747

G O'Connor

.

.

h

1-0

11,056

.

2006/07

C

h

0-1

12,245

.

.

.

a

1-2

19,521

McCann

2007/08

C

a

3-2

20,763

Blake Lafferty D Ward(og)

..

h

1-3

12,749

Akinbiyi



Click HERE to see all our results against Wolves