The wait goes on

Relegation wasn't a word on anyone's lips as we won nine of our first sixteen games, collecting no fewer than thirty-one points. But in the next sixteen games there has been just that one win against Leeds and only eight more points.

Probably Wolves was never going to be the place we could expect to bring the run to an end, although we won there last year it is hardly one of our favoured venues when looking for all three points. But they are not playing well at home so a good start and who knows we could have got that win.

Good start - it seems to be a while since we had one on the road. It took QPR just thirteen minutes in our last away game, and four days earlier Derby had scored after four minutes. We had to do better than that, but it wasn't to be.

Nothing had happened until Wolves won a free kick on their left hand side.

They hit the ball into the box and once again we failed to defend a set piece, and again it looked as though Jon Harley was the player being beaten far too easily. Up went Michael Kightly to head home past the helpless Danny Coyne and the mountain we had to climb had just got bigger. We were a goal down again with just five minutes gone.

Steve Cotterill had called for clean sheets, but he's simply not going to get any if we continue to defend set pieces like this. This took it to five goals conceded from free kicks or corners in just over three games, simply not good enough.

For much of the remainder of the half, Wolves didn't trouble us too much, but they were the better of the two sides and we were struggling to put anything together going forward other than through Wade Elliott who was playing well on the right hand side.

When we did get a chance it came following a bad mistake by Wolves defender Rob Edwards who let the ball bounce over him right into the path of Ade Akinbiyi. Up went the Burnley fans waiting for Ade to pull the trigger, but he wanted an extra touch and in the end didn't get a shot in. He's a shadow of the player who left us at the moment, the Ade of just over a year ago might have put his shot wide, but he would have got a shot in.

Surely our best chance of the half should have fallen to our penalty taker, but we are still wondering just who that might be as the officials incredibly missed the most blatant of hand balls by Jackie McNamara. It wasn't ball to hand, it was very much hand to ball, and the Wolves defender knew he'd got away with it. Maybe not as bad as the one not given at Barnsley but another one very hard to take.

That seemed to trigger Wolves back into action and only a superb block by John McGreal prevented them from doubling their lead. It was very much all Wolves now and Coyne saved well but in their very next attack they doubled their lead.

They got onto a loose ball in the box following a Michael Duff challenge, and as McGreal tried to block Stephen Ward turned the ball in and the mountain suddenly became Everest. It left worried Burnley fans to discuss the current situation at half time with even the most optimistic of fans not believing we could get anything from this game.

Something had to be done and we did make two changes ahead of the second half, and it was hardly a surprise to see the two players leaving were Steve Jones and Joey Gudjonsson. It is some time since Jones had a decent game, and Gudjonsson has failed to impress much since signing for us last month, and had been desperately poor during the first half. Kyle Lafferty replaced Jones, going on the right with Elliott switching to the left, and Chris McCann, and not Eric Djemba-Djemba, was the replacement for Gudjonsson.

We got off to a brighter start, and just eight minutes in we started to make a game of it. Ade played the ball in the box for McCann whose shot found the corner of the net to give us a lifeline, and he came close to another as he got a chance from just further out but hit his shot straight at goalkeeper Murray.

Wolves were suddenly in a game and were nothing like as comfortable as they'd been in the first half, They were hardly troubling us, although Coyne had to be alert to keep out one header.

At the other end we were up for a penalty again. It looked a good shout to me but having not given the bang to rights one in the first half we weren't going to get this. The game seemed to go flat at this point, but in the last ten minutes or so we came storming back into the game and the home side were being stretched.

With the clock ticking down we won a corner on the left. Now we all know we don't do anything from corners, every game someone is quick to tell you how many we've had and that we've achieved nothing from them, but this time we were so close to getting it right. Wade took the kick and up went captain Steven Caldwell. I had the perfect view of this, just the right angle, and I swear from the minute it left his head it was heading for the top corner.

I was up on my feet, and couldn't believe it when it came back off the underside of the bar, we were that close to a second goal and what would have been a point. We continued to push forward but we didn't get another chance before referee Kevin Friend blew the final whistle.

The man of the match for me was Wade Elliott, he was the player who gave Wolves the most trouble, and throughout the game. He played the first half on the right and moved across to the left for the second half. Elsewhere the two central defenders did well enough overall and, apart from the odd poor kick, there were no problems with Danny Coyne's performance.

The results column will show another defeat, and at half time nobody could have argued it and nobody could have suggested there was any sign of us coming out of this poor run. But there were signs in the second half, we were so much better than we've been in any of the recent games, and we now need to take that into Tuesday's game against Leicester and play like that for the full game.

We can't afford to give another soft goal away from a free kick or a corner, and we have to be more ruthless at the other end of the pitch. We're struggling to get a result, there's no doubt about that, let's get right behind them on Tuesday and drag ourselves out of it.

The teams were;

Wolves: Matt Murray, Karl Henry, Neill Collins, Rob Edwards, Jackie McNamara, Michael Kightly (Jody Craddock 65), Seyi Olofinjana, Darren Potter, Michael McIndoe (Jay Bothroyd 77), Stephen Ward, Andy Keogh (Mark Davies 89). Subs not used: Jan Budtz, Jamie Clapham.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff (Stephen Foster 88), John McGreal, Steven Caldwell, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson (Chris McCann 45), Steve Jones (Kyle Lafferty 45), Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray. Subs not used: Wayne Thomas, Eric Djemba-Djemba.

Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicester).

Attendance: 19,521.