Sunday, March 14, 2010

Burnley 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2


The Premier League game between Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Turf Moor on Saturday, March 13 2010.

The Premier League's worst defence came up against the division's poorest attack and, unfortunately for Burnley, it was they who more than lived up to their unwanted tag as Wolverhampton Wanderers took a significant step towards safety.

Burnley supporters claim they can count the number of 'good' goals they have conceded this season on the fingers of one hand, but having seen 63 fly into their net, it might be easy to have forgotten one or two.

Against Wolves, who had failed to score in seven of their previous 10 league games, there were two more to try to erase from their memories, with Tyrone Mears' poor header back allowing Matt Jarvis to open the scoring, before the misfortune of Adlene Guedioura's shot, which was going about 15 yards wide, glancing off Clarke Carlisle and into his own net.

Steven Thompson halved the deficit to set up a predictable late rally but Burnley have now won just once in 19 Premier League matches.

The importance of the fixture was clear from the very start, perhaps thanks to both teams huddling together to no doubt remind each other once again of what was at stake and the fact it was a big opportunity before the kick off.

Burnley began strongly, with Chris Eagles, who helpfully revealed before the game that he will be off if the Clarets are relegated, running the show.

Kevin Foley's cross picked out Dave Jones but the midfielder's header was kept out by a low save from Brian Jensen, who, shortly after, tore out of his area and headed Kevin Doyle's hip, earning himself a caution, as the Wolves striker tried to break on to Ronald Zubar's throw.

Danny Fox had a free-kick tipped over by Hahnemann but the visitors took the lead thanks to the kind of defending that has undermined Burnley all season.

When Doyle clipped over the top for Jarvis, Mears had plenty of time to knock back to Jensen and even had a strong wind behind him. But the right back did not head with anything like enough power and Jarvis guided the ball around the goalkeeper and took another touch before rolling into an empty net from half a yard.

Fox looked like he was given oxygen on the Burnley bench after he had to be replaced by Stephen Jordan and the full-back was eventually taken down the tunnel on a stretcher as the worries continued to mount for the hosts.

Just before the interval, a Mears free-kick was flicked on by Carlisle and, in one movement, David Nugent somehow managed to hold off Christophe Berra, control the ball with his head and prod at goal, only to see the ball bounce away off the bar.

A minute after the restart there was more of the same at the back for Burnley. Brian Laws' side failed to clear a Jarvis corner and after Zubar squared for Guedioura, the Frenchman hit a shot that was flying well wide, only to glance off the heel of Calirlse and past the helpless Jensen.

Burnley attempted to respond with an Elliott shot that flew wide before Laws' decision to replace Eagles with Steven Thompson was roundly jeered.

Robbie Blake's low effort bounced away off the bottom of the post and with just under 20 minutes left, Wolves failed to clear Mears' cross and Graham Alexander's bobbling shot was diverted in by Thompson.

Burnley piled forward in the closing stages, with Jensen coming forward for a corner in injury time, as Turf Moor took on a manic feel, but they could not find a second goal.

No comments:

Post a Comment