Wolves defeat is more than just the loss of points

Last updated : 15 March 2010 By Tony Scholes
Steven Thompson
Steven Thompson - first Premier League goal
I was hardly out of the ground after the final whistle when the first text arrived. "Not good enough," it said simply. Of course we didn't want to lose and needed the points as badly as any team but this was just the start of the reaction.

On this web site's message board there have been posters wishing injury on players, even worse on manager Brian Laws. Some of my friends have been threatened just because they've been forced to remove some of the worst comments. I've always been aware of overreactions to results and performances but this was way beyond that.

"I'm not prepared to give Laws a chance, he's out of his depth," commented one poster. Apparently, according to another poster, I've no right to write match reports because I don't go to games and my opinion is directly opposed to 95% of supporters.

Maybe my opinions do differ from those of the vast majority, but I do go to games and will report on them, and as for this particular game I certainly admit that I saw it a lot differently than a lot of people judging by the comments I've seen.

I saw us lose a game against a side that were above us only on goal difference at kick off, a game we could barely afford to lose. A draw would not have been a disaster but this reverse makes survival look a whole load more difficult.

Survival, and let's face it that's what this is all about. No Burnley fan wants us to survive and be playing Premier League football next season more than I do. However, I'm realistic to know that achieving that is difficult and has been so ever since that wonderful day at Wembley last May.

We finished fifth in the Championship last season, not top but fifth. We were a long way behind yesterday's opponents Wolves last May and they were then able to do more squad strengthening than we could because of their financial position. And yet, before Saturday's game they couldn't boast one extra point this season.

"Keeping Burnley in the Premier League will be a much bigger achievement than getting them there," said former manager Owen Coyle. He knew how difficult it would be, and by the time he upped sticks for Horwich he'd probably realised that it was getting less and less likely, and that he wasn't going to achieve it, he almost said as much.

We basically went into our first ever Premier League season with just two new players - Tyrone Mears and Steven Fletcher. Andre Bikey was quickly added and by the beginning of September we'd brought in David Nugent on loan.

That was it basically. Right from the kick off I vowed to enjoy the season because it might be our one and only in the top flight. I just hoped and prayed we wouldn't be remembered for being the worst ever team in this league.

We're not, and it didn't take us long to pass Derby's incredible final total of 11 points. But neither did it take very long for our season to come off the rails. Everything we've achieved has been on the back of winning the first five home games, and we've won just one at Turf Moor since October.

Away from home we've not looked good enough to win a raffle and our only point so far has come at Manchester City when, had they taken their second half chances, we could have been hammered.

Home wins turned into draws and more recently we've started to suffer more defeats at home. And how the reaction has changed. Some of the things I've heard have been nothing short of downright abuse, there's been plenty of it on the message board.

New manager Brian Laws has come in, and surely everyone must realise how difficult it is for him. Was he the right appointment? I can't answer that, I really have no idea, but I'm sure as hell not going to judge him on ten league games with a team that was already seriously struggling for results.

I don't know what he's like as a person, the last time I spoke to him was over a quarter of a century ago, but I'm more than willing to give him time to settle into the job and give it a real good go.

He's brought in some new players so needlessly they are now coming in for stick. Danny Fox went off injured on Saturday. Thankfully yesterday's news from the hospital was good. "I hope he's out for the rest of the season," wrote one message board poster.

As for the game, I really am still stunned at the reaction. No, I don't think we played that well over the ninety minutes but I thought our performance was more than good enough to warrant a point, if not indeed all three.

We don't have the biggest or strongest squad. For this game we had to go into it without Steven Caldwell, Chris McCann, Kevin McDonald, Jack Cork and Steven Fletcher. I know two of them have been long term absentees but Fletcher is a big miss and just three days earlier McDonald showed just what an influence he can be on a game.

We do have a habit of shooting ourselves in the foot though, and that's why we're not good enough at this level. It's been happening all season, right from the first game at Stoke. This time it was Tyrone Mears' turn. Put in that situation another hundred times he wouldn't place a poor header back in the direction of Brian Jensen. But he did, and we were 1-0 down.

By then we should already have had a 'bang to rights penalty' to use a quote one former Burnley manager. Referee Steve Bennett just had to have seen the shirt pull on Leon Cort that virtually swung the central defender round. His assistant most definitely saw it. Incredibly nothing was given, just as nothing was given at Molineux when Fletcher was twice hauled back in similar fashion.

Then came the farcical goal, and it really was against the run of play. But it halted us and for the rest of the first half we struggled to get any flow to our game. Even so, just a bit of luck would have seen us equalise when a David Nugent effort bounced onto the bar and over.

We needed a good start to the second half. What happened? More bad luck. This time a shot was going nowhere, and had it got to nowhere there were five Wolves players in offside positions. What happened? It hit Clarke Carlisle and needless to say went in for 2-0.

Poor Clarke, his face said everything. He'd been the error strewn defender two weeks earlier but this time had done nothing wrong. Any momentum we might have built up for the second half had been snatched from us.

Almost immediately there looked to be a very good shout for another penalty, this time a handball. Nothing was given. What a surprise.

Then came the defining moment. We'd already had to make one substitution in the first half with the Fox injury. Stephen Jordan came on then. Now, Laws decided to make a double change to try and turn the game round.

Steven Thompson for Chris Eagles and Robbie Blake for Andre Bikey. The booing started immediately the number 33 was shown followed by the chants of Eagles, Eagles, Eagles. By then he wasn't having much influence on the game, but that's hardly relevant. From the manager's viewpoint we needed to change things, and surely no one can disagree with that.

I know there used to be some booing when Stan brought Ronnie Jepson on but I've never heard anything quite like this from our fans at Turf Moor. Some fans even opted to leave. I'm only sorry they didn't miss a great fight back but they certainly missed the best part of the game. We pulled one back when Thompson headed in his first Premier League goal when a Graham Alexander shot bounced up, but we just couldn't get a second.

Robbie hit a post with Marcus Hahnemann well beaten and he saw his stoppage time effort saved by the keeper. We put Wolves under some enormous pressure but we just couldn't quite get the equaliser, which was the least we deserved.

With the final whistle came the booing, with the final whistle came the occasional sound of 'Laws Out' and of course the text I received saying it wasn't good enough. Not it wasn't, we needed points and three preferably.

But I'm not having it that we were as bad as some people are suggesting. We, for me, were the better side over the ninety minutes of this game and I still find it hard to believe we got nothing from it.

It won't stop me being there next week at Wigan, or from any of the seven other remaining games. I dearly want to see us stay up, more than anything I do. I'll give the team and manager my full support, I'm a Burnley supporter and that's what I'll get on with doing.

If we stay up, it will be brilliant, if not then I'll be there again next season in the Championship, still supporting the team and still supporting the manager and still wanting as much success for Burnley Football Club as is possible.

We won at Wembley last May, expectations have gone through the roof, and it's led to this. Who could ever have thought that the support could turn so quickly during our inaugural Premier League season? What a shame the great adventure has turned into this.

The atmosphere on this message board since the game has been depressing beyond belief. It's so sad; we should all be enjoying the Premier League while accepting that winning games was always going to be difficult.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Leon Cort, Danny Fox (Stephen Jordan 39), Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander, Andre Bikey (Robbie Blake 54), Chris Eagles (Steven Thompson 54), Martin Paterson, David Nugent. Subs not used: Nicky Weaver, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Jay Rodriguez.
Yellow Cards: Brian Jensen.

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann, Ronald Zubar, Jody Craddock, Christophe Berra, Stephen Ward, Kevin Foley, Adlene Guedioura (Michael Mancienne 59), Karl Henry, David Jones (Andy Keogh 70), Matt Jarvis (Sylvan Ebanks-Blake 79), Kevin Doyle. Subs not used: Wayne Hennessey, George Elokobi, Nenad Milijas, Sam Vokes.
Yellow Cards: Adlene Guedioura, Michael Mancienne, Christophe Berra, Andy Keogh.

Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent).

Attendance: 21,217.