Starting Line-Ups

Referee:Steve Tanner (Somerset)

Assistant Referees: Bob Desmond (Wiltshire) and Tim Howes (Norfolk)

4th Official: Trevor Parkes

Attendance: 21747

Match Round-Up:

1986 Grewcock 2005 Gareth O'Connor!

To be honest I have sat there tonight taking steady "report" notes! I have an A4 sheet full for each half. But one thing matters, Gareth O'Connor stepped into Burnley Folklore tonight! That's how bad the run at Wolves has been for us in the last 20 years. The first half started with Wolves lining up 4-3-3 and Burnley sticking to the (now tried and tested) 4-5-1. With the disappointment of not being able to play on loan defender Keith Lowe we at least had the news we hoped, both Sinclair and McGreal passed to play. My report is simple, we were brilliant! A steady and calm start saw us grow in confidence, a 50/50 period of play and then suddenly the free kick we could have only dreamed about. Just about the same place as Tuesdays, four men around the ball, you know that Gareth is going to hit it. He did, it swirved and stayed low 1-0. Did we deserve it? For effort, patience, calmness and general professionalism, of course we did!

So what do we want from the second half? More of the same will do. BUT will McGreal and Sinclair last? What about Jon Harley being in hospital for 24 hours with his wife finally giving birth at 5:40am this morning (!) can he survive. Of course and despite a scare on 62 minutes when it looked like John McGreal was in trouble and off, they all did us proud. We did not panic once, several chances went missing for Wolves and slowly we believed that we could hold on and do this. With McCann getting some more time on the pitch and Bermingham a second cameo role late on the game ended after 93 minutes wolves 0 BURNLEY 1.

Final Comments: This, in my opinion, was a better result and more satisfying win than the beating of Ipswich. No one really believed we could do it! Some of us hoped for a tough point, some would be happy with a close defeat even (!) what we got was 11 men working their socks off 110% for 93 minutes in the driving rain in the horrible dark midlands, not once panicking, not once giving up, and for the first time in nearly TWENTY YEARS we did them away. MOM on Sky was James O'Connor and I have to agree although should be joint with Micah Hyde, both outstanding.

Stats:

Possession:
Wolves 57%
Burnley 43%

Shots:
Wolves 11
Burnley 4

Corners:
Wolves 6
Burnley 3

Fouls:
Wolves 7
Burnley 13

Wolves

M Oakes, L Naylor, J Lescott, G Gyepes, R Edwards, M Kennedy, R Ricketts (L Clarke 79), C Cameron (M Davies 57), K Seol, C Cort, K Miller

Subs: S Postma, J Craddock, S Olofinjana, L Clarke, M Davies

Burnley

B Jensen, M Duff, F Sinclair, J McGreal, J Harley, G O'Connor, M Hyde, G Branch, J O'Connor, J Spicer (C McCann 79), A Akinbiyi (K Bermingham 85)

Subs: D Courtney, W Elliott, C McCann, G Noel Williams, K Bermingham

Steve Cotterill's Post Match Comments:

"We played with lots of energy for the first hour and restricted them to long range shots because we knew that they couldn't score against us in the first 20 or 30 minutes if we were going to get anything from the game. A lot of the games they have won, they've scored in that first 30 minute period and if they didn't score then, they haven't always won so that early period was vital for us. They hit the bar a couple of times and we would have been sweating buckets if it hadn't been pouring with rain."

Other Full Time Scores:

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