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There were no surprises with the team news, we don’t really have enough players for too many surprises, and Glen Little returned in place of the injured Luke Chadwick whilst Tony Grant took over from Paul Weller also injured.
If Dave Jones was playing a weakened side then the news certainly passed me by and the home side looked anything but weakened.
It was almost a return to the days when Burnley and Wolves were top clubs when Mo Camara led the Clarets out after Stan handed him the captaincy for the night on his return to his old club. What a superb gesture by the Clarets’ boss but it is something that always used to happen some years ago.
The full-back received a warm reception from his former supporters, and there were more inside the ground than we could have expected, where he was such a popular player before losing his place through injury last season.
If we thought it was going to be a difficult night then it certainly started that way and before we had settled down we had twice cleared the ball off our own line with Brian Jensen beaten. Both times it was Ian Moore who was back there to keep the scores level.
But that wasn’t to be the pattern of the first half when the Clarets played well and were probably the better side and should really have been in front by half time. And it was the Wolves keeper Michael Oakes who made the first save of the night to keep out Moore.
It was a flowing move down the right with Glen putting Dean West clear. His cross was met by Delroy Facey who knocked it down for Mooro to get in a great volley that Oakes saved at the expense of a corner.
Wolves were struggling to get going and Richard Chaplow and Tony Grant were winning the midfield battle and constantly setting up attacks and supporting the forwards. We were playing well and taking the game to Wolves whereas the home side were almost relying on breaks.
We did have a scare in the last few minutes of the half but Jensen saved well from Miller but we really should have gone in with a lead when Moore got a gilt edged chance right on half time.
Put clear by Robbie Blake he had what looked the simplest of chances but put his shot straight into the hands of the grateful Oakes and that just about brought an end to the first half.
Burnley fans were confident as they discussed the chances over a half time balti pie and pint but this was as good as it was going to get, it was soon to turn into the Molineux of old as we fell behind.
It took just three minutes of the second half for Wolves to take the lead and what a poor goal it was to give away. There have been so many goals conceded this way in recent times as West committed himself against the impressive Henri Camara and his cross was converted by Kenny Miller.
If that wasn’t bad enough worse was to come from the stands. Wolves incredibly have been banned by the police from playing ‘The Liquidator’ at Molineux and have adopted the dreadful ‘Tom Hark’. I don’t particularly enjoy going 1-0 down in a cup tie and find it rather difficult to appreciate Burnley fans on their feet dancing to the damned offensive music like programmed monkeys. I thought it was bad enough when we scored but with this words really do fail me.
All the good work of the first half was now out of the window almost from the restart and it was now going to be an uphill task and although we went on to have more than our fair share of possession we struggled to create any real openings.
Blake did get a shot on target that was well saved by Oakes but chances were few and far between as we never came close to matching the performance of the first half.
It really did look as though it was going to end at 1-0 but we don’t often get let off that lightly at Molineux and so predictably they doubled their lead with just nine minutes to go. If the first one was bad then this was certainly worse and once again we conceded from a set piece.
Wolves won a corner and when the ball was hit into the box central defender Jody Craddock headed home. The problem was that he headed home unchallenged and fingers had to be pointing at the appalling effort by Graham Branch.
Branchy has got into the habit of finger pointing himself recently as goals have gone in against us, quick to apportion blame, but he needs to take a look at his lack of effort in even making Craddock’s header difficult.
That was it, the result was looking all too familiar and that’s how it stayed until referee Chris Foy brought it to an end to signal our exit from this season’s Carling Cup.
It really was a game of two halves for us. In the first half we looked the better side, got forward well and were in control in midfield. With some luck and some steadier finishing we could well have gone in with a lead.
But the second half performance was nothing like that. Players disappeared from the game, Arthur shone like a beacon in an otherwise dreadful defensive display, and it is difficult to remember a single occasion when we really threatened Wolves.
It was disappointing after the first forty five minutes against a Wolves side that looked anything but a side with any confidence despite their superb comeback last Saturday against Leicester.
But we will have got some money out of it, that appears to be the be all and end all these days, with over 18,000 there to watch.
Now we need to get back to winning in the league to arrest the recent slide that has seen us drop eight places.
The teams were,
Wolves: Michael Oakes, Oleg Luzhny, Jody Craddock, Paul Butler, Lee Naylor, Silas, Paul Ince (Alex Rae 45), Joey Gudjonsson, Henri Camara, Steffen Iversen (Leon Clarke 81), Kenny Miller. Subs not used: Nathan Blake, Isaac Okoronkwo, Carl Ikeme.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West (Lee Roche 62), Graham Branch, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Richard Chaplow (Gareth Farrelly 61), Tony Grant, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake, Delroy Facey. Subs not used: Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.
Referee: Chris Foy (St Helens).