Wolverhampton Wanderers v Burnley

Ade Akinbiyi - returns to Molineux to face his former club

Nineteen years it had taken Burnley to win, or even score at Molineux up until that fateful night in front of the Sky cameras, but a fantastic Garreth O’Connor free kick brought the points back to Lancashire, but this time round the Clarets will be grateful to take anything back home.

The depressing run now stands at just one win in sixteen games if you include the FA Cup tie at Reading, and you have to go as far back as 28th of November since the 2-1 victory over Leeds United.

The run coincides with the injury to Andy Gray sustained in the victory over Leeds, but the prospect of our top-scorer returning to full-fitness is just the tonic the Clarets need to put an end to this awful run.

Ade Akinbiyi should partner Gray in attack, Ade returning to his old club where he spent 11 very productive months at in the 1999/2000 season. Ade bagged 16 goals in 36 starts in the old gold of Wolves before moving onto Leicester City for a staggering £5m in July 2000. Wolves had paid £3.5m to take Akinbiyi from Bristol City, and transfer fees for the much-travelled striker now stand at well over £15m.

Ade though, like Gray is still regaining match fitness after failing to hold down a regular place at the striker merry-go-round under Neil Warnock at Sheffield United. The game is tailor made for Ade, who does relish playing against his former clubs, and an on-song partnership of Akinbiyi and Gray really is a mouth-watering prospect.

Wolves will have different ideas though, and the recent acquisition of Scunthorpe’s Andy Keogh has signalled their intentions this season, and with Wolves lying just three points of the play-offs, they will be looking for a victory over the out-of-sorts Clarets to continue their play-off charge.

Seyi George Olofinjana is the man to watch for Wolves in the engine room, and it was his goal last weekend that gave Wolves a fantastic away win over Preston North End. The Nigerian international is just the kind of player Burnley could do with, catching the eye each time he plays against the Clarets. He could face a fierce clash in the midfield against fellow African Eric Djemba-Djemba, not one for the faint hearted.

Burnley fans have been allocated the lower tier of the Steve Bull Stand for this fixture, which means that we will have to fork out an extra £4 from what we had to pay last season when we were housed in the Jack Harris Stand. The move means a much more expensive day for the travelling Clarets and at £27 somebody really needs to look at the pricing of football in the Championship. Either that or politely inform Wolves that they are no longer in the Premier League.

The Steve Bull Stand - Burnley fans will occupy the lower tier. Image: Tim Rigby

Regardless of form, Burnley fans will be making their way down to the West Midlands on Saturday hoping for a victory to end this dreadful run and hopefully put an end to the nervous looks over our shoulder that we’ve had to endure over the last few weeks, but let’s be honest, a draw would be a good return from a very tricky away fixture.