Clarets beat Wolves – it can happen

Last updated : 20 August 2002 By Tony Scholes

Bill Holden - scored in both games against Wolves
The 3-0 defeat on Saturday condemned the Clarets to a tenth successive league defeat against the Black Country club with a Sherpa Van Final game thrown in for good measure.

The last time we beat them was at Molineux in 1986/87 when a Neil Grewcock goal gave us a 1-0 win. For a home win we need to go back further to an FA Cup tie in 1970 that gave us a 3-0 victory with the last home league win even further back in 1963/64 season.

During the 1970s the Football League did their best to ensure we got off to a bad start by twice in three years pairing us with Wolves in the opening game of the season. The 1974/75 season started with a 2-1 home defeat although two years later in temperatures considerably higher than those witnessed on Saturday we left Molineux with a 0-0 draw.

But today we will celebrate not just a victory but an opening day home victory against them. In the days before computers made a mess of the fixtures our first match of the season in 1953 was also against Wolves. Today is the 49th anniversary of that game and we can report that the Clarets got the season off to the best of starts with a resounding 4-1 victory.

For the record there were 32,822 saw us collect this big opening day win with Les Shannon scoring twice with Bill Holden and Brian Pilkington also on the scoresheet. Just to rub it in Bill Holden scored both goals in a 2-1 win at Molineux in the December to give us the double over them, a feat that has been achieved only once since and that four years later.

So on 19th August 1953, a very average date for the Clarets over the years, we beat Wolves 4-1.

You see, we can beat them.