Can Owen Coyle emulate Alan Brown?

Last updated : 15 March 2008 By Tony Scholes

If winning at Molineux has proved difficult over the years then beating Wolves at the Turf certainly has. When Gareth Taylor and Dean West scored in a Boxing Day 2-1 win in 2002 it was the first time we'd won a home league game against them since John Connelly scored a late winner against them in November 1963.

Now to Alan Brown. He was captain of our 1946/47 promotion and FA Cup Final team and was Burnley manager from 1954 to 1957. In his third and last season in charge we did the double over Wolves and in 51 years we've not done it since. A 3-0 home win with goals from Albert Cheesebrough, Peter McKay and Brian Pilkington was followed by a 2-1 victory at Molineux. Doug Newlands got the first goal in that game with Cheesebrough on the mark again.

Wolves currently sit three places behind us in the table in eleventh place. They are four points behind us but with two games in hand. Since we last met Mick McCarthy has strengthened his hand with four new signings in January. He signed Dave Edwards from Luton, Colchester's Cameroon defender George Elokobi and splashed out on Plymouth's former Manchester United striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. He also added his former Sunderland striker Kevin Kyle who signed on loan from Coventry.

No fewer than eight players have gone out on loan since the turn of the year, mainly players outside of the first team squad, but just yesterday striker Jay Bothroyd was allowed to go to Stoke initially for a month.

They've had a mixed bag of results recently but today's game will be their fifth away from home in the last six games. They lost at Preston on Tuesday but had won their previous two games on the road against Crystal Palace and Colchester.

Click HERE to see Wolves' results this season


Burnley held a place in the top six back in September but a 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace on the last Saturday of the month saw us drop to seventh place. We've not been back in the top six since and every time we get close we've had a bad result.

Now is the time to start putting that right. We are at, as some people would call it, the business end of the season and now is the time to get the important wins. We started with a win against Charlton in midweek, now another win against Wolves would put a massive amount of daylight between us as well as possibly taking us into a play off position depending on other results.


Team News

Wolves' boss Mick McCarthy is still without Michael Kightly and Stephen Ward with ankle and knee injuries respectively. Also out is Kevin O'Connor (Jimmy's brother) who has a hamstring injury. Dave Edwards was forced off in midweek at Preston with a groin injury and remains doubtful with Andy Keogh expected to replace him.

To add to that both Kevin Kyle and Freddy Eastwood have been suffering with illness this week and it is touch and go whether they will be fit enough to travel. Either way, neither are expected to be in the starting line up.

McCarthy's likely team is: Wayne Hennessey, Neill Collins, Gary Breen, Jody Craddock, George Elokobi, Stephen Elliott, Karl Henry, Darren Potter, Michael Gray, Andy Keogh, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Subs from: Graham Stack, Kevin Foley, Matthew Jarvis, Seyi Olofinjana, Darren Gibson, Kevin Kyle, Freddy Eastwood.

Click HERE to see the full Wolves squad

Owen Coyle will still be without Chris McCann through injury but he welcomes Joey Gudjonsson back after he completed a two match ban following his red card against Hull a week last Tuesday. Joey will surely be back in the squad but it remains to be seen whether he can get his first start since the trip to Plymouth against his former club.

Up front both Ade Akinbiyi and Andrew Cole have been carrying knocks and it will be a matter of which one is in the best shape, but both are expected to be fit enough to take their places in the squad.

I suspect it could be the same starting line up as Tuesday and that would see us line up: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Stanislav Varga, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Alan Mahon, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake, Andrew Cole. Subs from: Brian Jensen, David Unsworth, Mark Randall, John Spicer, Ade Akinbiyi, Steven Caldwell, Joey Gudjonsson.


Last Time Round

Last season's home game against Wolves was predictable and in more than one way. Wolves won and having signed a striker from Blackburn earlier in the week it doesn't take two guesses to work out who scored the only goal of the game.

Kyle Lafferty - man of the match
Jemal Johnson was the goalscorer and such a good signing was he for Wolves that he only got three goals for them before they shipped him out to League Two and a career with Franchise, this after featuring in Dennis Wise's relegation party at Leeds during a loan spell.

But this was a disappointing performance, made worse by the fact that a win would have taken us back to the top of the table. The two central defenders, Wayne Thomas and Michael Duff, had nightmares and between them presented the goal to Johnson, whilst Alan Mahon who had been such an influence in midfield had a poor game.

The one shining light in the performance was up front where Kyle Lafferty replaced the suspended Andy Gray. He was excellent up front in his best performance yet for Burnley, and he linked up well with the ever impressive Steve Jones in attack. There's no doubt that Lafferty was the man of the match on the day and the announcement of Jon Harley over the PA brought laughter around the ground.

But it was a typical home performance against Wolves, and certainly not the sort of performance we are looking for today. It will be very much different teams today with no more than four in either side that started last season being in today's starting elevens.

The teams last season were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Gifton Noel-Williams 53), Micah Hyde (James O'Connor 53), Chris McCann, Alan Mahon (Stephen Foster 86), Steve Jones, Kyle Lafferty. Subs not used: Garreth O'Connor, Graham Branch.

Wolves: Matt Murray, Rob Edwards, Jody Craddock, Gary Breen, Jamie Clapham, Rohan Ricketts (Darren Potter 45), Karl Henry, Seyi Olofinjana, Daniel Jones, Jemal Johnson (Craig Davies 74), Leon Clarke. Subs not used: Carl Ikeme, Denes Rosa, Mark Little.


Previous results against Wolves

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1987/88

4

a

0-3

10,002

.

..

h

0-3

10,386

.

.

SV

W

0-2

80,841

.

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)



Click HERE to see all our results against Wolves