Clarets beaten again

It’s all changed since Boxing Day, when we hit fifth place in the league after beating Stoke, and now just a month and a half later we are already eleven points behind the bottom play off position, we can forget finishing in the top six, and supporters are now once again focussing on the bottom of the table.

Not for one minute do I think we’ll be relegated, but unless we arrest this poor run soon then we are certainly going to find ourselves dropping further and further down the table.

Last night we had a lot of the play against what was probably the most inept Wolves side I’ve ever seen at Burnley, with the exception of the fourth division days of the 1980s. I thought they were very ordinary, had little to offer, but were able to go home with all three points far too easily.

With the defensive crisis caused by suspensions, Michael Duff moved into the centre and as we suggested yesterday it was Wade Elliott who came in at right back. In the only other change, youngster Chris McCann replaced the currently off form Graham Branch.

The first ten minutes suggested that we might be set for a first double over Wolves since 1957 with most of the play towards their goal, and their fans at the cricket field end. Jon Harley wasted a free kick, goalkeeper Stefan Postma made a good save to his right to thwart James O’Connor and we could so easily have had a penalty when Gifton Noel-Williams was fouled by Joleon Lescott.

The somewhat sparse crowd, don’t believe anyone who tells you there were 11,000 inside Turf Moor, were getting behind the team but disaster struck on that quarter hour as we fell behind.

A cross was knocked back for Ince who was in a central position just outside the box and his first time shot, straight down the middle, beat Brian Jensen and into the net. From my vantage point it wasn’t clear just what had happened, although there were suggestions that the ball had taken a bad deflection which beat the keeper.

If he wasn’t to blame for the goal, he was certainly to blame for an incident just after that really should have seen us go two behind, when an awful kick out eventually fell to Frankowski who should have scored.

We were having a difficult few minutes but we came out of it and twice came close to equalising. Firstly a speculative effort from Michael Ricketts went just over the bar and then Postma saved well from Elliott at the expense of a corner.

Burnley were having much of the play but not putting enough pressure on the home side when we did get balls into the box, and when a half chance went begging as the fourth official held the board up for the added minutes it meant we went in at half time still behind.

The second half started in the same manner, but there was no breakthrough. Postma again was called upon to keep his side level, saving well from Micah Hyde, but the longer the half went on, the more you realised there was going to be no equaliser.

Our play got more frantic, we started to just hit long balls, and although we were having so much of the possession it was pretty dire stuff that hardly threatened Wolves. Graham Branch came on for Chris McCann, but it made no difference and I’m hard pushed to recall any positive contribution from Branchy during the latter part of the game.

We got balls up the pitch, we even got balls into the box at times, but we didn’t attack them, we made it far too easy for Wolves to defend and in the end it was they who came closest to actually scoring a goal in an isolated break from defence.

It simply wasn’t good enough and if the front two of Gifton Noel-Williams and Michael Ricketts are going to be effective then they weren’t in this game. We had options on the bench, some of them may well be inexperienced but surely it had to be better than what was served up in the last half hour of this game.

We’ve got games coming up that will prove to be far tougher than this one, Wolves showed enough last night to confirm why their supporters are less than happy. We looked tired, jaded, and without ideas and it has to change.

I’ve said that I really don’t expect us to end up in a relegation battle but if we carry on like this who knows, and in any case I’m just wondering how on earth they think they are going to sell season tickets in April with the current image our club has. We’ve got problems and we need some solutions, and we need them quickly.

There were some disappointing individual performances last night but there were some good ones, none more so than the two former Bournemouth players Wade Elliott and John Spicer. Elliott was drafted into full back and did well enough and his attacking down the right hand side was as good as we’ve seen from him all season.

Spice was only back in the side on Saturday at Ipswich, where he quickly faded, but he was much better last night and was involved in a lot of our good play. But it’s Elliott for me for man of the match, up against Kenny Miller as well he played exceptionally well.

Finally, the referee. He’s been criticised but apart from the penalty he missed early in the game I thought he did well enough.

We’ve got a break now, and probably that’s not the best thing right now. We need to get out and win a game, and soon.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Wade Elliott, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, John Spicer, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Chris McCann (Graham Branch 63), Gifton Noel-Williams, Michael Ricketts. Subs not used: Duane Courtney, Danny Karbassiyoon, Garreth O’Connor, Marc Pugh.

Wolves: Stefan Postma, Maurice Ross, Joleon Lescott, Jody Craddock, Lee Naylor, Mark Davies, Paul Ince, Denes Rosa (Darren Anderton 75), Carl Cort, Tomasz Frankowski (Jeremie Aliadiere 80), Kenny Miller. Subs not used: Michael Oakes, Mark Kennedy, Vio Ganea.

Referee: Clive Oliver (Ashington).

Attendance: 11,056.