The last goal was not scored by Neil Grewcock

Last updated : 16 February 2007 By Tony Scholes
Kar Henry
Grewcock scored our goal there in a 1-0 win in the 1986/87 and for the next nineteen years he was the last Burnley player ever to find the net at Molineux. That was until Garreth O'Connor netted the winner there last season.

Overall it is not one of our happiest hunting grounds, but I have seen us win there on three occasions and that's three more than a number of other grounds I've seen the Clarets play at. Will we make it four tomorrow? The bookmakers would suggest not, but they wouldn't be expected to back us against anyone at the moment given our recent run.

Wolves have moved up to ninth in the table, just three points behind the play off positions. That has come about with a run of just one defeat in six league games since the start of 2007, although their better results have come away from home.

They were the first team to beat us this season. That was in August on the third Saturday of the new season when a goal from Jemal Johnson, on his debut, was enough for them to take all three points.

Manager Mick McCarthy has hardly stood still since with his squad and there have been a number of new signings. Charlie Mulgrew arrived from Celtic in September after his contract had been cancelled by the SPL club, and in January there were six new signings although only two of them were new faces.

They two new players are forwards Stephen Ward and Andy Keogh. Ward has signed from Bohemians of Dublin whilst Keogh, one half of Scunthorpe's striker partnership, moved to Molineux for a £600,000 fee.

They have been joined by four players who had already been with Wolves on loan during the two windows, and have all now signed permanent deals. Barnsley's Michael McIndoe, who scored twice against the Clarets for his former club in our 4-2 win, signed for £250,000 and he was quickly followed by Michael Kightly who signed from Grays. RK Sunderland's Neill Collins was next, a player the manager knew from his time on Wearside, and the final signing was Darren Potter from Liverpool.

There could be two players heading for the exit door soon, as early as next week. Johnson hasn't maintained the form he showed against us back in August and he, and possibly Rohan Ricketts will move on loan deals.

When they played us earlier in the season it was after they had been beaten by Preston and this time they face us after just beating Preston. They won 1-0 at Deepdale with an early goal from Seyi Olofinjana, but they were much the better side on the day and fully deserved the three points.

Click HERE to see all Wolves' results this season.

It's a difficult game for us, we never travel to Molineux expecting anything, but we didn't last season and won against the odds.

Team News

Wolves have Jody Craddock back in the squad for the first time since before Christmas. He last played on 23rd December and has been out since with an achilles injury. He is expected to go straight back into the side.

There have been doubts about Seyi Olofinjana and Karl Henry. Both have missed training this week, Olofinjana following a training ground knock and Henry with a flu type bug. They were both back in training today and are expected to be in the side tomorrow.

One player definitely out is Gary Breen who will be serving the last game of a three match suspension and Mark Little is again expected to be on the bench with Karl Henry dropping into the right back position to replace him.

The expected Wolves team is: Matt Murray, Karl Henry, Jody Craddock, Jackie McNamara, Rob Edwards, Michael Kightly, Darren Potter, Seyi Olofinjana, Michael McIndoe, Stephen Ward, Andy Keogh. Subs from: Jan Budz, Mark Little, Neill Collins, Lee Collins, Jay Bothroyd, Mark Davies.

Click HERE to see the full Wolves' squad.

Alan Mahon is definitely ruled out for the Clarets and he is now the only player out of the squad through injury. With the new players settling in it is somewhat difficult to determine just what the starting line up might be. However I don't expect it to be much different than the side that started in last week's draw against Sheffield Wednesday.

Eric Djemba-Djemba could come back in after being named as a substitute last week, and if so then the player likely to miss out is Joey Gudjonsson. I think that could be the only change.
If so we will line up: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Eric Djemba-Djemba, James O'Connor, Steve Jones, Andy Gray, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Wayne Thomas, Stephen Foster, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Garreth O'Connor.

Last Meeting

The long awaited Molineux goal and the long awaited Molineux win came to give the Clarets a first away win of the 2005/06 season, and it was a win that we had to fight for against some strong Wolves pressure.

Wolves had most of the early possession, but never looked dangerous. We'd certainly had the better opportunities and when referee Steve Tanner gave us a free kick on the edge of the Wolves box Garreth O'Connor curled it round the outside of the wall and into the bottom corner.

It could so easily have been 2-0 on a couple of occasions and even though Wolves came close to an equaliser just before the break, we were well worth our half time lead. The second half though was to prove more difficult.

Wolves came at us from the off and for much of the second half they had the upper hand, they really did put us under some pressure. But we defended well, it was difficult to believe that neither Frank Sinclair nor John McGreal should really have been out on the pitch, and when Wolves did get through they missed a couple of half chances.

But one chance apart, they didn't really create too much, although at times it was tortuous watching it all from the far end. It was the second successive win, the second of seven wins in nine games, that lifted us from bottom of the league up to just behind the play off positions.

The teams were;

Wolves: Michael Oakes, Rob Edwards, Joleon Lescott, Gabor Gyepes, Lee Naylor, Rohan Ricketts (Leon Clarke 79), Mark Kennedy, Colin Cameron (Mark Davies 57), Ki-Hyeon Seol, Carl Cort, Kenny Miller. Subs not used: Stefan Postma, Jody Craddock, Seyi Olofinjana.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Garreth O'Connor, James O'Connor, John Spicer (Chris McCann 79), Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi (Karl Bermingham 85). Subs not used: Duane Courtney, Wade Elliott, Gifton Noel-Williams.

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

.

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

.

Click HERE to see more results against Wolves since our first meeting in the inaugral league season of 1888/89.