Wolves Lack Bonfire Spark

Burnley 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers

(Paterson 18, Austin 53)

Paterson celebrates opening the scoring

And so, the Wolves woes continue. Another tepid display, another away defeat, and yet more howls of pure anger coming down from the supporters. Ironically, on bonfire weekend, Wolves just lacked the spark needed to ignite this game. Having said that, I don't think things were as bad as some people make out. Before Burnley's goal, we played some lovely football, with one and two-touch passing a regular sight. We looked comfortable on the ball and were arguably the better side, just looking for a way to break Burnley down. However, we go and make a stupid, sloppy mistake and go 1-0 down and after that, we never really looked the same side.

Probably the most concerning element of today's game is that we looked like we had very little ideas of how to break the opposition down. There were some nice bits of play, but we lacked a real end product. The biggest culprits of this were Pennant and Sako. Pennant at the moment looks terrible. I know he needs game time to improve - but he's had 4 matches now and he looks shocking. He doesn't take players on, he doesn't think when he passes the ball - often giving away possession - and his delivery, both crosses and set-pieces is absolutely abysmal. I would quite happily have taken him back South in my car tonight, but stopped off at Stoke and given him back. Indeed, I would personally start with Forde on the right on Tuesday, as he looked very positive when he came on and showed some good touches. Pennant, however, really needs to up his game if his claim of being a "Premier League winner" is to prove anything but laughable. Bakary Sako too, after fantastic early-season promise, is really starting to get on my nerves. He's lazy, he doesn't really take on his man, he stays narrow the entire time and again doesn't always think when he's passing the ball. He has no positional sense whatsoever - so much so there was a period of 5 minutes in the second half where he and Pennant were on the right-flank and getting in each other's way.

Michael Duff: Unbeatable

What I must say though, is that Burnley's defence - and in particular the superb Michael Duff (don't know why Ben Mee got their MOTM over him) were brilliant. They stopped almost every move we tried and were incredibly solid. Remarkable really for a side that had conceded the most goals in the Championship before kick-off. Although we weren't at our best, their back four were impenetrable and as I said, Michael Duff was unbeatable all afternoon.

On the flip side, yet again we look very weak defensively. Christophe Berra, who has done well so far this season, had by far his poorest game of the season. Stephen Ward looked rather solid first half but faded in the second. And Roger Johnson was up and down in his performance too, perhaps a tad lucky not to be sent off although it looked like Austin made a meal of what was only a slight tangle between the pair. But not for the first time in recent weeks, it is the form (or lack of) from Kevin Foley which is a huge concern. In our promotion season, he was Mr Consistency himself. A solid 8/10 every week minimum. Now, he looks bereft of confidence on the ball, scared to put a foot on the ball and rather timid when it comes to crossing the ball too. It is extremely worrying how such a good footballer can look so different to his old self and this must surely be high on Solbakken's list of priorities in the coming weeks.

What I think we need right now is another International break. A chance to regroup and change our stuttering form. Whereas before I think we were getting the end product right but looking a little iffy in our overall play, it appears we're suffering the opposite now. We look like we have the build-up play and possession football relatively sussed, but we're struggling to get the killer touch added to it. But I do still believe it will come good. Chants of "boring boring boring" and booing Stale Solbakken and his players off the pitch won't help matters at all though. Do we really want to bring back a culture of having players afraid to play for Wolves?! The signs from the team are encouraging, they just need that first win again to boost morale and confidence. Hopefully that will come on Tuesday night at the KC Stadium.

Henry: Professional performance

My Wolves MOTM: Karl Henry. Kept possession sensibly, including some good linking up with Doumbia (also another MOTM contender, just fading as the game wore on) and got forward well. Kept things ticking over in midfield. A professional performance.

Wolves In A Word: Lacklustre

In Stale We Trust