Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Burnley 1
It may be a little early to start worrying about promotion jitters in Wolverhampton. But what a nice problem to have, given the mess things were in when manager Mick McCarthy inherited Glenn Hoddle's miserable bequest in the summer. And was this the 90 minutes when McCarthy's rebuilt Wolverhampton Wanderers transformed from free-spirited hopefuls into promotion contenders?
At half-time on Saturday, nerveless Wolves looked outstanding after running up a two-goal lead against a poor Burnley side. On the back of the previous weekend's excellent win at Preston, Molineux expected more but, when the two sides came out for the second half, it was a different story.
Stung by a soft early goal, Wolves froze and spent the half hanging on for dear life. There were a lot of well-chewed fingernails before a second successive three points were in the bag.
"It's going to be like that from now on," admitted McCarthy. "There is an opportunity to be promoted which was never expected at the start of the season.
"Now the pressure mounts, the expectation, the tension and it took two moments of inspiration and 90 minutes of perspiration to get us the win. We had to graft and dig in and we'll have to do that again.
"When you're at home, you're expected to be a bit more expansive and attack teams and we didn't have that ability. But we've got the home win we needed and let's take the positives out of it, rather than the fact that we got a bit nervy. Burnley had three big lads up-front in the second half making us defend and we defended well."
In all honesty, having to dig deep made this win just as important as last weekend's. But, although this was only their second home victory in ten games, there is no mistaking Wolves' claims now.
Admittedly, the pre-match statistics were all in their favour. For the best part of 20 years, with the odd exception of last season's freakish 1-0 win on this ground, the Clarets have taken the role of Wolves' whipping boys.
More than that, Steve Cotterill's side have hardly been in the best of form. Defeat extended their run to one win in 12 games — the club's worst sequence in almost three decades and one that has seen them slump from the top six to 15th.
Wolves, by contrast, were coming off the back of arguably their best performance of the season and started with their tails up. Just four minutes had gone when an unmarked Michael Kightly leapt like a salmon, hanging in the air to head home Jackie McNamara's cross.
It then took a brilliant block tackle by Rob Edwards to stop Ade Akinbiyi when the former Wolves striker looked set to pull the trigger but, other than a penalty appeal which did not go Burnley's way and left McNamara conspicuously rubbing his elbow, the first half belonged to Wolves.
Kightly. who came off with a rib injury that makes him a doubt for the visit to Ipswich Town tomorrow night, got on the end of another cross from the right from Michael McIndoe, only to be denied by goalkeeper Danny Coyne.
Andy Keogh was also twice denied, first by a block from John McGreal and then when Coyne saved his header from McIndoe's cross. But it was certainly well deserved when Wolves doubled their lead five minutes before the break.
The hard-working Stephen Ward launched himself at the home defence with a brave solo run, but it was the timing of his shot which had all the hallmarks of a natural finisher.
No sooner had he drawn a challenge from McGreal than he unleashed a subtle left-foot toe-poke into the bottom-left corner of the wrong-footed Coyne's goal.
"A real goalscorer's goal," said McCarthy. "It might have looked a bit scruffy, but the way he took it was actually a real touch of class."
Cotterill can feel pleased with the way his side battled back after the break. When a sloppy Seyi Olofinjana failed to cut out Akinbiyi's square ball, substitute Chris McCann took full advantage but once Stephen Caldwell had headed against and then over the bar from James O'Connor's cross, the points were safe.
Scorers: Kightly (4) 1-0; Ward (40) 2-0; McCann (52) 2-1.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (4-4-2): Murray; Henry, N Collins, Edwards, McNamara; Kightly (Craddock 66), Olofinjana, Potter, McIndoe (Bothroyd, 78); Keogh (M Davies, 90), Ward. Subs: Budtz (gk), Clapham.
BURNLEY (4-4-2): Coyne; Duff (Foster, 88), McGreal, Caldwell, Harley; Elliott, Gudjonsson (McCann ht), O'Connor, Jones (Lafferty, h/t); Gray, Akinbiyi. Subs: Thomas, Djemba-Djemba
Referee: K Friend (Leicester).
Bookings: Burnley — Duff, Gudjonsson (fouls).
Attendance: 19,521.
