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Off Colour Clarets fail to tame Wolves
A good display would have gone a long way against a Wolves side that have a very good away record but are not so convincing in front of their home fans. But in true Clarets fashion at the moment, we gifted two goals to Wolves in the first half that effectively killed off any hopes of a point at Molineux.
Burnley lined up with a quite attack minded team, with no Wayne Thomas or Kyle Lafferty, who were both on the bench but started with what I would argue is our best team at the moment.
Wade Elliott, who impressed me last week against Sheff Weds, was once again in good form and according to the programme notes, has put in a total of 142 crosses for us in his games this season. A statistic that seems to show how many goals could be scored from crosses. Instead, it was Wolves' impressive midfielder Michael Kightly who scored the opening goal of the game when he found acres of space to nod past Danny Coyne and put Wolves in front. I am not sure who was at fault, but somebody definitely lost their man in a crucial area and we found ourselves one behind.
We did start to fight for the ball after that and Ade was unlucky when he found himself through on goal, only for a last ditch tackle that forced a corner.
The ever impressive Elliott, who was doing well on the right wing and causing problems, had a massive penalty appeal turned down as he crossed the ball into the area, it certainly struck the defenders outstretched arm inside the area about 10 yards from the linesman, who gave nothing. For me it was as clear a cut penalty as the one not given at Barnsley. Will we ever get a penalty?
The 2nd goal followed not long before the break, as Michael Duff took an eternity to turn, he lost his man, and Ward fired a low shot into the far post past Coyne and that seemed like game over. To be fair, it could have been four or five in the first half, but we were quite lucky to go in 2-0 down at the break.
Something had to change.
And SC decided to bring on McCann for Joey and Lafferty for Jones. Instantly it paid off with Chris McCann firing in from 18 yards. Game on.
For the majority of the 2nd half, we were the better team, with Wolves content to sit back and defend. We should have equalised when Caldwell headed against the bar, which looked like it was flying in, but hit the bar.
That was the last action of the game, but I was quite confident that our bad run may be coming to an end. Especially with the 2nd half performance.
Wade Elliott gets a special mention from me, who was my man of the match. He tormented Wolves on both flanks, and looked the best player on the pitch.
Steve Caldwell also gets a mention, as I think he played well again. Looks like a good buy for us, and hopefully we can build on our 2nd half performance, and take 3 points from Leicester on Tuesday at Turf Moor.