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That losing record is no longer
A lot has happened to Wolves since we last played them in the league, they finally found the promised land of the Premiership after a play off win against Sheffield United but were back down again a year later after finishing bottom.
There haven’t been too many additions to Dave Jones’ squad since the end of last season. Rob Edwards was signed from Aston Villa for a fee of £150,000 whilst Joachim Bjorklund was snapped up after being released by Sunderland.
On their way out were such as Paul Butler who moved to Leeds, Nathan Blake who is now at Leicester, Steffen Iversen, Oleg Luzhny, Alex Rae has signed for Rangers and finally Dennis Irwin who retired at the age of 38 after making over 900 career appearances.
Then there is Henri Camara who suddenly decided he didn’t fancy life below the Premiership, didn’t bother turning up for a while and eventually Wolves took the only course of action available to them and got rid of him. He’s currently on a long term loan at Celtic.
Wolves were installed as clear favourites to go straight back up but they haven’t made the best of starts although their squad has been decimated by injury since the big kick off two weeks ago.
They suffered a defeat on the opening weekend defeat at Stoke in a Sunday televised match and were somewhat fortunate to come away with just a one goal defeat. Since then they have followed that up with two home draws.
The first saw them come from two behind against Preston to earn a 2-2 draw and last Saturday it was goalless against Leeds although Kenny Miller missed a glorious chance to get the first win but he missed from the penalty spot.
Manager Dave Jones said about the start, “We’ve had the chances in front of goal but you have to put them away, you have to be more clinical.
“We should have two wins under our belts now and be talking about having got off to a good start as opposed to a mediocre one”.
He has though been looking to strengthen his squad this week but to date without success. “As long as nobody panics then we will get the players we want to make the squad stronger,” Jones added.
“We are not the only club finding it difficult to get the right players. It is frustrating but you have to hold your nerve”.
They will thankfully be without Mark Kennedy tomorrow, how often has he caused us problems? He is missing with a knee injury as are defender Jolean Lescott and striker Iorel Gonea.
To add to that both Carl Cort and Dean Sturridge are rated very doubtful with Glen Little style hamstring injuries. Another striker George Ndah is also ruled out as is new defender Joachim Bjorklund.
There is some good news for Wolves – Colin Cameron, Kevin Cooper and Lee Naylor are all expected to pass fitness tests after recovering from injury.
They are expected to field the same side as the one that drew with Leeds at Molineux last Saturday which was:
Paul Jones, Mark Clyde, Seyi Olofinjana, Jody Craddock, Lee Naylor, Shaun Newton, Paul Ince, Colin Cameron, Rob Edwards, Kenny Miller, Leon Clarke. Subs: Michael Oakes, Keith Andrews, Kevin Cooper, Gary Mulligan, Keith Lowe.
The Burnley side is somewhat easy to select just now with the size of the squad. Michael Duff and Micah Hyde have returned from international duty whilst Danny Coyne is expected to shake off his ankle injury in time to play.
Our side, which includes former Wolves full back Mo Camara should be:
Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Matt O’Neill, Joel Pilkington, Ryan Townsend, Marc Pugh.
And back to that win that gave our Christmas a boost. It was just revenge for the defeat the previous season that was Barry Knight inflicted.
Our goals were scored by Gareth Taylor and Dean West in a match where the Wolves midfield, namely Paul Ince and Alex Rae, seemed to determined to take over refereeing duties from Matt Messias.
Hopefully another result like that, when the teams were,
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Mark McGregor, Glen Little (Ian Moore 79), Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Alan Moore, Robbie Blake (Dimitri Papadopoulos 88), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Mark Rasmussen, Matt O’Neill.
Wolves: Matt Murray, Marc Edworthy, Mark Clyde, Joleon Lescott, Denis Irwin (Paul Butler 45), Kevin Cooper (George Ndah 64), Alex Rae (Colin Cameron 54), Paul Ince, Mark Kennedy, Dean Sturridge, Carlton Cole. Subs not used: Michael Oakes, Kenny Miller.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1986/87 | 4 | a | 1-0 | 5,786 | Grewcock |
| . | . | h | 2-5 | 2,947 | Grewcock James |
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 | . |
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to see more results against Wolves since our first meeting in the inaugral league season of 1888/89.