Molly View

Igor looks at the season so far, and the upcoming game at Molineux

By: Igor Wowk

PAST

Now I have secured the purchase of my ticket for the encounter at the Molyneux, I feel as if my season has started at last.

PRESENT

I see that the Clarets are nestling nicely in 8th position, although at this stage of the season placings are somewhat spurious. Myself I am not surprised, as we are going to catch out a few teams early doors and I don't subscribe to the view that the Press should give the Clarets the credit they deserve, in fact the more they slag Burnley off the better, as future opponents will be lulled into thinking that BFC are picking up points simply because the opposition isn't playing well.

I note also that several other sides in the Division are not in the best of shape, among them last Saturday's opponents Wimbledon. The first managerial casualty of the season has already occurred at Grimsby, so they also look to be in disarray. So both on and off the pitch the prospects look relatively rosy, as the process of a minimum of three fall guys emerging looks well under way.

FUTURE

Specifically on Saturday we are facing a fairly typical Division One side. A nice big ground, big expectations but their team has been consistently failing them. They have spent lots of money to little effect and anyone of genuine Premiership calibre is promptly shipped out to pay the wages. Remarkably several clubs seem to stagger on like this, offering huge rewards to mediocre talent, who show little genuine team spirit when it really comes to the crunch. A higher grade version of ourselves pre-Ternent, minus the shipping out of high grade talent.

Wolves lost at home last night to Oxford and have yet to win in the league. In the past, playing Burnley would usually be a golden opportunity to end that kind of run. Under Ternent its an opportunity for the CLARETS to exploit the weakness of the opposition.

Wolves are currently struggling to put together a cohesive unit with the arrival of several new signings including Katsbaia and Bob Taylor. Equally they are suffering the loss of their top scorer Akinbiyi to the likes of Leicester who are deemed to be a "smaller" club. The pressure is on the replacements and management to deliver and when they don't, unrest quickly breaks out and already Lee is said to be "under pressure".

Burnley were in a similar situation to Wolves last night. However the differences are that BFC have a genuine goalscorer, as well as a cohesive team with a resolve that is difficult to break, added to some forward momentum.

Allied to their own buoyant following, if the Clarets can stifle the opposition for 20 mins., the relatively large home following will be a plus for the Clarets and not a minus. The expectations will be that a newly promoted home side should be duffed up good and proper early doors & when reality dawns, the home support will turn into one massive phone in.

The two big disadvantages are the spectre of Bob Taylor, and our relatively poor history at this ground, which has often been a graveyard of Claret hopes, but with a first home win against Wimbledon Stan has already started to re-write the history books.

Consequently I am optimistic of another positive result and if the Guvnor is ready, able, and gets enough ammo., it might be more positive than we possibly dare hope.

UTC

Igor

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