Molineux disappointment

Last updated : 21 December 2009 By Tony Scholes
Graham Alexander
Graham Alexander - Burnley's best player
This was typical of so many games away from home where we didn't come to life, or anything close to it, until we were well behind in the game and with it virtually beyond us.

With winter gripping the North West it was a bright and sunny, albeit cold, afternoon in the West Midlands where many Burnley fans didn't get there until very close to kick off because of the behaviour of the police.

They might find it funny holding coaches so long on the outskirts of the town before taking them in so late that it is a rush to make kick off. I find it anything but funny, and another example of police state policies when it comes to football.

I don't travel by coach often these days and no wonder after this. They kept us in a holding place until 1:05 p.m. before moving us in on empty roads at about 20 mph, ensuring we got there as late as possible.

The teams were out. Burnley had, not surprisingly, named the same side whilst Mick McCarthy had named his 'A' team, showing nine changes from the 'B' team he played at Manchester United in midweek.

Given what happened in the first ten minutes or so, the police might as well as got us in late. It was a dire opening but it was evident that Wolves were looking the more likely, and as we know away from home we are only one mistake away from going behind.

On the quarter of an hour we obliged and this was one for the scrap books in terms of mistakes. Kevin Doyle got the better of Clarke Carlisle far too easily on the Wolves' left. He played the ball for Matt Jarvis who shot straight at Jensen.

The keeper should have held it but did no more than palm it out forwards, exactly where it shouldn't go. No surprise to see someone free and Nenad Milijas made no mistake as he planted it in.

We might have equalised almost immediately when Kevin McDonald shot just wide and then Jensen avoided a second Wolves goal when he got our quickly to deny Doyle. The Wolves striker was so clearly offside you wonder just what on earth the assistant was doing to miss it. But as we were to find in the second half, this man wasn't the best when it came to using his flag.

The rest of the half was tedious stuff. We lost Carlisle to injury but Owen Coyle opted not to take the chance of a reshuffle and sent on Michael Duff for his Premier League debut. Many thought Nugent should have been introduced at this point with Bikey going into the back four and us switching to 4-4-2.

We did switch the system at the start of the second half with Bikey incredibly being pushed up to partner Steven Fletcher, and we could have twice equalised. Fletcher was clearly fouled after Wade Elliott and Tyrone Mears linked up on the right. Mears got in a cross and Fletcher was hauled down. No flag, obviously, and referee Martin Atkinson opted not to see it either.

Another ball in from the right saw Duff not get a good enough contact and the chance went begging. You just knew what was coming, and it duly did, as we went 2-0 down. This time it was Steven Caldwell whose mistake cost us.

Fair enough, Doyle was backing into him. He'd been doing it all afternoon with no punishment and he got away with this one too. That left him clear in the box, he went past Duff and gave Jensen no chance.

Another defeat now looked well and truly on the cards but we did at least attempt a fight back. Much of it came from Chris Eagles. He was probably our most impressive player during this spell but he did get caught in possession too often and didn't often find the final ball.

We made more changes with the ineffective Bikey and then Caldwell both being substituted, but those coming on did nothing to change things.

There's no doubt we should have had another penalty when Fletcher had his shirt almost pulled off his back by the already yellow carded Karl Henry. How on earth both the assistant and Atkinson missed it is hard to understand, again they chose to give nothing.

There were eighteen minutes left at this point and you do wonder what might have happened if the ever reliable Graham Alexander had pulled one back at this point. He was denied the chance and in truth we didn't really look like scoring again whilst at the other end Jensen made another couple of good saves to ensure the scoreline got no worse.

So, another away defeat, and this time probably from the most disappointing performance yet this season. I thought we were shockingly poor in the first half at Ewood Park in October but this, against a hardly inspiring Wolves side, wasn't as good as that.

We made too many mistakes, we were clearly second best in the midfield where both Bikey and McDonald were bullied out of it, and created very little. For me the best performer was Alexander, but overall we are going to have to be a lot better than this if we are not to continue sliding down the table.

We are notoriously poor at Christmas and into January. We really are going to have to turn that round this year.

The teams were;

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann, Richard Stearman, Jody Craddock, Christophe Berra, Steven Ward, Kevin Foley, Kark Henry, Nenad Milijas (Michael Mancienne 68), Matt Jarvis (Chris Iwelumo 87), Kevin Doyle (George Elokobi), Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Subs not used: Wayne Hennessey, Andrew Surman, Stefan Maierhofer, Segundo Castillo.
Yellow Cards: Karl Henry, Kevin Doyle.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle (Michael Duff 34), Steven Caldwell (Joey Gudjonsson 68), Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Andre Bikey (David Nugent 53), Chris Eagles, Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Robbie Blake, Steven Thompson, Fernando Guerrero.
Yellow Cards: Joey Gudjonsson.

Referee: Martin Atkinson (Leeds).

Attendance: 27,410.