Pressure on Hoddle eases as Wolves beat Burnley

Relief
By Scott Cooper
February 15 2006

WOLVES boss Glenn Hoddle was delighted with his sides performance at Burnley on Tuesday night and declared that the race to the play off is well and truly on.

A Goal from Paul Ince was enough to win the game for Hoddle in the 14th minute and for the huge spells of Burnley pressure, the Wolves goalkeeper Stefan Postma was only tested once late in the first half.

The Wolves boss had come under pressure from the fans at the previous two games, from this website and yesterday from Wolves chairman Rick Hayward.

The Chairman put a statement on the clubs official website prior to Tuesdays game declaring his "frustration" at the recent run of results, but Hoddle and his Wolves side replied in the best possible way.

The Wolves boss was forced to leave Mark Kennedy out of the squad after the Wolves captain picked up an injury in the warm up. Full back Rob Edwards was also injured, so in came Maurice Ross and teenager Mark Davies.

The first half was won by Wolves. Hoddle was forced to play with two strikers and although Kenny Miller was forced to play on the right wing he had plenty of the ball. Thomasz Frankowski had already had one effort well saved by Jenson by the time the impressive Maurice Ross crossed towards the far post in the 14th minute. Carl Cort headed the ball back to the onrushing Ince who rolled back the years to hammer home from 20 yards.

Lee Naylor also came close for the away side, but Ince's goal was enough to give Hoddle something to hold on to in the second half.

Having to hold on wasn't going to be the plan after the break, but it was the way it turned out. Burnley showed no real threat at all but enjoyed huge amounts of pressure with Wolves, playing nowhere near as well as they did in the first half, at times unable to get out of their own half.

Hoddle took off the busy Denes Rosa and Thomasz Frankowski ten minutes from time for Anderton and Aliadiere but the result stayed the same and Wolves clinched their first win in four.