Back in 2002, I traveled north to Turf Moor for another vital game between these two old clubs.
Wolves were absolutely desperate for a win, with Sandwell rapidly closing in on the automatic promotion places. That day, we exploded out of the blocks and were 3-0 up before half-time; Colin Cameron netting the third following a trademark run from deep.
Wolves are looking for a league double over Burnley
Unfortunately, the game flipped on it’s head in the second half and nearly caused my heart to explode. Burnley stormed back, quickly reducing the deficit to just one goal and laying siege to our penalty area for the remainder of the game, frantically probing for an equaliser.
But Wolves held on. It certainly wasn’t pretty and nobody in old gold cared one iota.
The result was all that mattered.
The same can most certainly be said of this weekend’s encounter.
It doesn’t matter how well we play, how many mistakes we make or how many chances we squander. All that matters is the result.
With both sides locked on 24 points and struggling to add to their respective totals, a win for either would be massive.
I’m not a betting man, but I’d imagine Burnley are favourites for this one given their impressive home form this season. All their points, apart from a single draw at Man City, have come at Turf Moor, with only three teams managing to leave with the maximum.
Gulp.
So how can any of us possibly feel confident about Wolves securing a famous away win?
Well, Pompey went there two weeks ago and left victorious. With Stoke claiming a point there last night, that made it one win in seven at home.
Coupled with their continued horrendous away form, Burnley do have the distinct look of a side that could be running out of gas at the most crucial time of the season.
Add to that the loss of Owen Coyle, which seems to have significantly derailed their progress. Their fans might disagree but I don’t think bringing in Brian Laws has done much to galvanise the club either. That appointment didn’t exactly send out the message ‘We’re here to stay’.
Despite all of this, there’s still very, very little between the two clubs, which is an excruciating reminder of how summer expectations at Molineux haven’t been delivered on.
It’s practically impossible to predict with any authority if either of these sides have enough to beat the drop, which is probably more galling for those in gold shirts than it is for those in claret in blue.
One thing you can accurately predict is the Wolves XI to start this weekend’s game:
Hahnemann
Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Ward
Foley
Henry
Guedioura
Jones
Jarvis
Doyle
If good performances always yielded points, that side would have Wolves sitting closer to midtable than the bottom three right now. But unfortunately, a cocktail of horror misses and defensive mishaps have allowed valuable results to slip away.
We simply cannot afford to do the same in this one.
I’d be interested to hear whether you think this a ‘must-win’ or ‘must not lose’ game. The way the league seems to be panning out, I find myself leaning more towards the latter.
The one thing we can all agree on though is that defeat would be disaster.
I think we’ll get something, but I reckon that ‘thing’ might just be a point.
I’ll go 2-2.
If you’re making the trip up to Lancashire for this one, have a great time and roar the lads on.
Up The Wolves.
* Just want to crowbar in another shameful plug for my friends site, so make sure you check out DotComGiftShop for Easter gifts.
An old cliche, but if we can keep a clean sheet we will win this game. Burnley are a championship club same as we are. We should not be afraid to go and attack as long as our defence focus on what they need to do ie no stupid mistakes!
Unfortunately, we have a wimpish coward for a manager, who cannot think beyond “must not lose”.
However, even that mentality is flawed as he plays so many defenders out of position.
If he was in charge of a World XI, the first name on his team sheet would be back pedallin’ Ward, closely followed by his butt buddy Fanny Craddock.
We are in the wonderful habit of ending other teams winless and goaless streaks, so I fear the worst, and Burnley to get their biggest home win of the season.
Yes, negative, but I’m so fuckin’ fed up with all the bullshit platitudes continually issued by the club, the players and the manager, and I cannot see beyond defeat, and in all the rest of the games this season.
What was Sunderlands record minimal total of points?
Wasn’t it under MM the Coward they got them?
Is he out to beat his own dismal record?
Wouldn’t it be nice, and a miracle, if Burnley ended our winless streak.
Ha Ha. We are Wolves, and the tooth fairy don’t visit us very often.
Ben, you are still ugly.
FOWB
Clive they got 15, we are nine better? keep looking for the positives though.
we have to try and get clear of the other two, and this is the perfect chance. we need soem goals, 3-1 to us. Doyle, Foley and keogh
Foley?? I always thought hell would freeze over first.
Like the confidence though
Foley’s been unlucky a couple of times but it’s unfair on Foley. He should be playing where he deserves to after winning player of the season there. hope Mick moves him there when he puts Keogh in the team.
Surely Zubar has earned the right to retain his place until he has a mare or gets injured/suspended? Mick might drop Foley in favour of Keogh, but he generally favours the incumbent player as long as they’re doing a job, which Zubes surely did against Utd.
Agreed Chris, but then again I’m Zubar’s biggest fan.
Unfortunately he does make the odd silly mistake, which is a real shame because I think he could be a top class defender.
He’s got all the attributes you need to play at the highest level and most crucially for me, he looks like he actually cares.
Foley at left-back is an option too in my opinion.
I shoudl have said Zubar at centre back. He definitely has earned the right to retain his place. I think Zubar could give us that pace aswell at centre back.
Unless he’s injured, Ward should play. He also deserves his place, he’s our best option there and I think has done really well.
I would have Keogh on the right. I think Mick thinks he has to play Foley, he doesn’t. I would sooner have him at RB than Zubar, but if he feels different Foley can go on the bench.
I think Zubar is like Gabby Heinze should be. A reserve fullback and a reserve centre back. If Foley, Berra & Craddock are fit – he’s on the bench. If any one of those 3 are injured/suspended/unavailabe – he’s first choice to slot in.
Let’s face it, it should be a must win, but we’re all so afraid (me included) that it won’t be. Defeat would indeed be a disaster and i think the nail in our coffin’ I saw the fixtures of Hull and Burnley the other day, and there’s some nicer for them than us (including against each other rather worryingly).
It’s a big un, let;s not dress it up as anything different. This for me is the game that either keeps us up or sends us down. As i’m predicting a draw, then it wouldn’t decide anything.
Blind Pugh has sent us the black spot.
Our hour has come.
WE ARE FUCKIN’ DOOMED !!!
Burnley have certainly been unlucky themselves a few times this season, I remember after they drew 1-1 with the gooners (around about the same time as the trafford ten situation) thinking they could have taken all three points with a bit more luck. We’re not the only team who’ve been so afflicted.
That said, and in spite of our impeccable duck breaking record (as soon as I heard Scholes was 1 off his century I knew what was coming. Waiting for the Pompey game was agony – 7 losses on the bounce was it?) I still feel optimistic about the game. If we can remain stoic in defence, and not succumb to a lapse as basic as Che Guevara’s damp squib at notlob, and if Doyler can provide more of a target in the final third (rather than standing 4 yards from the player he’s just passed to like an eager puppy waiting for the tennis ball to be lobbed back across the park) then we stand a really good chance. Pretty sure Bambi Craddock’s due another soon too…
COME ON ME BABBIES!!!!
If Coward MM played Foley where he should, at right back, and Zubar in the middle, and Stearman at left back, then Can’t Get Any Berra and Back Off, Back Off Ward can be dropped, and we might have a fighting chance.
Meanwhile, I will keep playing the lotteery, coz I gotta better chance of winning that than MM getting a footballing brain.
FOWB
F**k me – Stearman! I’d totally forgotten about him!
Has he been injured? Or just dropped for giving away that rediculous penalty?
Clive – your grasp of probability seems sub optimal.
I take that back. I believe MM can not find a footballing brain because he already has one. He attracted USA and Doyle to this team, recruited Zubar and Milijas (who I think still have a lot to offer), as well as Henry, Foley, D Jones, Jarvis etc to the club. He also has us outside the relegation zone of the Premier League, after taking us up from the Championship. Remember the day Hoddle resigned (before England Portugal) and what a dire circumstance we were in. Remember Jemal Johnson was first choice striker?
Therefore he can’t get one because he already has one.
Jemal Johnson wasn’t the worst, in fact he looked ok until he dissapeared off the scene. Remember Craig Davies? Now that’s when you know times are hard
Rich, I actually liked Craig Dave. He struck me as a bad boy offender who had been let out on probation, and was desperately trying to cleanse himself for us. I remember him missing a sitter at the North Bank End and I could have cried for him (think we were playing Stoke and 2-0 up). He is now reoffending at Port Vale.
I particularly liked ’7 days’ by Craig Davis, it was proper bo! Come on Kes ya b@stard!
Rich – agreed. Further evidence of how far we’ve come under the ‘brainless and useless Mick McCarthy’
Cut all the cr@p in the newspapers MM a draw will not be good enough, anything other than a win here and we are all but doomed. We can not keep relying on Burnley and Hull having worse results than us and need to get some points in the bag. And an away win against a team in our mini-league is well overdue.
As for the failed blue nose Blake I hope Doyle et al ram his comments up his @rse on Saturday! MM shouldn’t need to give much motivation to the players after comments from the team that only came up via the lottery of the play offs. Cheeky tw@t, hope Zubar roughs him up a-la-Muscat (but with a yellow card maximum!)
Come on Wolves – dont let us down!
Can’t belive Sky are not showing this game, surely the worldwide audience of the Premier league would love to see this demonstration of the beautiful game from two ‘total football’ sides?
Match coverage at 11.55pm on saturday night (for two minutes) – as close to the football league show as the BBC can possibly manage!
I get to watch at 3.00 pm local time, which is 9.00 pm over there. Don’t know if I have enuff nails to chew.
t’OM, if you are going to attempt urine extraction, kindly do it in English, and use words of one sylable or less. We are all Wolves fans on here, not Mensa candidates.
There are some major piss takers on this site, right Scooped, so be warned, the can of worms could come back to bite you on the horses gift mouth.
FOWB
I will “watch” it on juddervision (the internet!) whilst listening to the local radio – up goes the carbon footprint!
Much to the disgust of my wife who will say “how can you possibly watch that?” – when the obvious answer is “I cant” – but it’s the best available option!
Sorry Clive. Must be the American English failing to Translate into Australian English. I’m happy for the can of worms to bite me, but I’d prefer if all good deeds came home to roost.
Fair play Doyle, maybe you could also ask MM to stop drumming up bidders via stupid comments in the media…
“Wolves striker Kevin Doyle has pledged his future to the club and has been promised signings will be coming into Molineux if they stay in the Premier League.
Boss Mick McCarthy believes the club’s £6.5million record signing will be sold if Wolves are relegated from the Premier League.
But Doyle has no plans to leave and has been told the squad will be strengthened in the summer – news which will dash the hopes of Villa, Everton and Sunderland among others.
He said: “As far as I understand, I will be here – there’s absolutely no reason why not. The manager has said to me and a good few of us that if we stay up this season, there will be a lot of strengthening and adding to the squad in the summer and that can only be a bonus.
Here, Here!! Comment from the E&S today
For me the Wolves board and most importantly Jez Moxey doesn’t appear to have learnt enough from our last unsuccessful foray into the top-flight.
Surely the powers-that-be will realise that the signings of Stefan Maierhofer, Andrew Surman, Segundo Castillio and Greg Halford have proven to be just as fruitless as Silas, Oleg Luzhny, Issac Okoronkwo and Joey Gudjohnsson were back in 2003?
Big difference is that this time around Mick wasted a large chunk on transfers, whereas back in 2003 Dave Jones’ hands were tied and he had to delve mainly into the free transfer market.
Thank God, Mark Lawrenson has forecast defeat for Wolves in his weekly Predos.
That man has been a thorn in our side throughout this season; constantly giving us the kiss of death by saying we’ll win.
He reckons 2-1 Burnley and that’s the first omen for me that we’ll almost certainly get something from the game.
I just looked at that on the BBC website and thought – “I’ve always hated you Lawrenson!”
He got seven from nine right last week – with two perfect scores! But he’s hardly nostra-f**king-damus!
If we are drawing with ten mins to go it will be interesting to see how McCarthy approaches it. Will he throw on Vokes/SEB and go for a win, or perhaps Mancienne/Stearman to try and keep things tight and earn a point?
I hope for the former, as I feel we are a better team than Burnley (although they played nicer football than us earlier on this season) and, as Man Utd at home showed, if we go for it we will make chances.
Tom, if we win tomorrow I will be quite literally over the moon
It’s official,
We are already relegated.
Absolutely no friggin’ doubt.
Why?
Here’s my reason, very simple.
Living over the pond, we obviously don’t get the British papers, so I subscribe to The Electronic Telegraph.
Actually, subscribe is a lie, it’s free, but you get the drift.
Every Friday, they have a preview of all the Prem matches taking place that weekend.
Today, they have previews of nine games, and guess which match is not previewed?
Well, no prizes, but is it a coincidence that the two clubs involved are in the bottom four??
Move over Hanson and Lawrenson and all the other ex scouse “experts”
The Telegraph, and who can disbelieve them, have us already in the fizzy.
Is there no one on our side?
Come on Daz, let’s have some support from down there!!!!
FOWB
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/burnley/7422874/Burnley-keep-the-faith-in-dogfight-to-avoid-relegation-from-Premier-League.html
Bit more of an in depth review of the game than who’s available to play and who satarted the last game for us. Don’t think the Telegraph’s got us relegated just yet, they’ve actually gone to the effort of writting a proper report due to the importance of this game.
This was published 2 days ago, not the Preview I was writing about.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
The final twety minutes were torture. but we did it and Burnley look sunk
You’re right Louie, it was a really long 20 minutes. We never make things easy. The amount of free kicks they were winning was ridiculous, I was sure the ref was going to give them a penalty.
I know Ward gets a bit of stick on here, myself included, but his reaction at the end of the game was brilliant. When he came over to us you could tell it meant as much to him as it did to each of the fans.
Happy days.
Well done the boys – brilliant result!
Six pointer and six points won Mr Blake. But you are a better team? Going down with the cow bells!
A quote from the C’ from Houston ‘WE’RE FUCKIN’ DOOMED’. I realise we’re not safe yet but todays result has helped massively in our fight for survival. I really hope you have to eat those words come the end of the season when we stay up and ‘Mad Mick’ as you call him prooves that he is good enough to manage in the premieship. If we go down I’ll be the first to put my hands up and admit that I was wrong to believe in the management and playing staff, but if we stay up will all the doubters be prepared to admit they were wrong? We might not be as good as some of the great Wolves teams of the past, but we’re constantly improving and we might get there one day. I’m enjoying the ride anyway, always grateful that I can pick out the positives in a team that will never be perfect and is easy to critisise.
I disagree that if we go down you were wrong to believe. That’s not how it works. Many factors, outside their control, exist. I don’t necessarily buy into the argument that if we go down it’s someone’s fault.
Here here nick!
T’om i think that is the same if we were to stay up, certainly given the state of pompey.
Yep, absolutely. To say that MM, or Jez, or Morgan is responsible for us staying up/going down is ridiculous. I personally think MM is good enough to manage in the prem (and that we wouldn’t get anyone better), but survival/relegation will not change that.