Burnley 1 v 1 Wolves (Sky Bet Championship)
Wolverhampton Wanderers arrived at Turf Moor to face a Burnley side that was unbeaten in fourteen games. The Clarets were looking to extend their lead at the top of the Sky Bet Championship with only nine games remaining.
It was a fairly even half and despite the early pressure from the Clarets they could not find a way past Kenny Jackett’s resilient defence. The first twenty minutes were a bit of a midfield battle with very few chances.
Joey Barton’s ambitious strike from 25-yards was never troubling Carl Ikeme, before a wonderful whipping delivery in from Matt Lowton was caught sweetly by Vokes, whose volley was always rising.
However despite being slightly on top of Wolves for most of the first half, it was the visitors who came the closest to taking the lead five minutes before the break. Barton claimed a foul from a misplaced back-pass to leave the Clarets short at the back.
Tom Heaton then skewed the clearance from Barton’s back-pass and George Saville had a strike from the edge of the box, which Ben Mee thankfully blocked on the line with Heaton beaten, to leave the half-time score 0-0.
It was Wolves who started the second half the better, coming close on two occasions before the hour mark. Matt Doherty’s initial long-range strike was blocked, conveniently falling for Jed Wallace, but the former Millwall loanee could only strike at Heaton.
Wolves midfielder Jack Price had the second chance striking the ball for goal, twenty yards out with a low drive that beat Tom Heaton in the burnley goal, but stuck the post.
On sixty-eight minutes Joey Barton’s inch-perfect cross from the right found Sam Vokes on the penalty spot and the former Wolves striker wonderfully found the top corner, with a fine glancing header for his 10th goal in 14 outings.
On seventy-nine minutes the ball fell to George Saville at the edge of the Burnley area but his left-footed shot went wide of tom Heaton’s goal.
Burnley’s final effort of the game came on eight-eight minutes following an excellent headed pass by Hennings found Scott Arfield, but his right-footed shot from the edge of the area went high and wide of the right-hand post.
Wolves drew level two minutes into added time when Danny Batth headed home from six yards following an excellent corner from Nathan Byrne, to make the full time score 1-1.
Speaking after the match manager Sean Dyche said, “It was a good point and a close affair in the end against a team who came here with a resilient game plan. We had to try and work out different ways of breaking them down, but we just got caught at the end with a set piece, which can happen.
Teams don’t just roll up here and roll out the red carpet and say ‘go on then, you beat us’. They come here to work and get a result and we need to make sure we are ready for that.
The defensive unit was strong again today and the midfield unit worked well. It’s only one or two details in the game, like a few loose passes when we could have maintained the ball better and been more progressive with it.
But it’s a long season and it’s difficult to be on top of your game all the time. I asked for patience from the crowd and it was a strange one today, because I think we can get more from them.
There were a few question marks over players when a pass goes astray and a little bit of angst sets in. That’s strange to me with what’s happening here and how we are doing and that patience is important.
I mentioned it in the programme before the game and there has to be that patience because it’s support that we need. These are a very important eight games for different reasons and we need to bring that positivity into the stadium constantly.
The team do it and have for a long time now and sometimes the crowd have to get involved on behalf of the team and we need that going forward because it’s a great weapon.We have had an amazing run of results and we are still looking strong.
We gave everything to win a game today and it didn’t quite work for us, but it’s another point on the board and we believe in what we are doing.”
Match Details
Burnley – Heaton, Lowton, Ward, Keane, Mee, Boyd, Barton, Jones, Arfield, Vokes, Gray (Subs) Robinson, Taylor, Hennings, Marney, Kightly, Tarkowski, Darikwa
Wolves – Ikeme, Iorfa, Batth, Hause, Doherty, Saville, Price, Coady, Wallace, Zyro, Helan (Subs) Mason, McDonald, Sigurdarson, Byrne, Martinez, Deslandes,Le Fondre
Goals – (Burnley) Vokes (68) (Wolves) Batth (90+2)
Attendance – 17,411
Chadwick Media 