Challenged by manager Brian Laws to retain their position as masters of their own destiny, Burnley are fast becoming masters of their own demise in the Premier League relegation fight after further defensive fallibility has left them three points away from safety with time running out.
Each of these teams, level-pegging at kick-off, showed themselves to be omega males in the top-flight jungle. Given the circumstances, Laws declared this a 'must-not-lose' contest, but the Lancashire club gifted a relegation rival victory once more.
Tyrone Mears's tame back-header allowed Matthew Jarvis to put the visitors ahead via some deft circumnavigation of giant goalkeeper Brian Jensen and then, a little over 60 seconds into the re-start, Adlene Guedioura's shanked drive was re-directed into the corner of the net by the luckless Clarke Carlisle.
Burnley's survival prospects have been founded on their results at Turf Moor, but this reverse meant they have been victorious just once in 19 league outings, a frightful run stretching back to Halloween. Momentum appears deep set and down.
Although they maintained their record of scoring in every home game since their promotion, through substitute Steven Thompson's header, a glance at their remaining fixture list does not bode well. After next week's derby with Blackburn, top-four challengers Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham are in town.
However, Laws insisted: "This is not the last game of the season. Whilst it is a body blow for us, we cannot allow it to effect us and destroy our last eight games."
Their uncertainty at the back showed in the 12th minute, when goalkeeper Jensen charged from his area and crudely rammed Kevin Doyle over. Referee Steve Bennett's judgment that it did not prevent a goalscoring opportunity meant a yellow card when the cynical nature of the challenge arguably justified red. Burnley twice hit the woodwork either side of Wolves' second goal, but it seems an awful long time since 31 October, when they occupied 10th place.
THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT
MARTIN BARNES, When The Ball Moves We were a bit insipid and looked like we lacked ideas. We started playing some good stuff with 20 minutes left. Brian Laws made substitutions that seemed to galvanise us but we just took us too long to get started. We were ponderous. Wolves didn't look particularly good but didn't have to. We gave them the first goal and arguably in the build-up to the second we conceded a needless corner. Confidence looks low and there is a lot of passing of the buck, which is always a sure sign. I would say there is an 80/20 chance that we'll go down. However, if I was a Wolves fan I wouldn't be that confident of staying up, either.
The fan's player ratings Jensen 6; Mears 5, Carlisle 5, Cort 5,Fox 4 (Jordan 39 6); Elliott 5, Alexander 5, Bikey 4 (Blake 54 7), Eagles 6 (Thompson 54 7); Paterson 6, Nugent 6
Arthur Williams, Observer reader I enjoyed the game in the first half and the early part of the second, but then McCarthy made some inexplicable changes that invited Burnley on to us. Guedioura was the key man for us in the first half in midfield and in breaking up their attacks. For whatever reason McCarthy took him off and this allowed Burnley back into the game and us defending a lead with 35 minutes left, too long to hold on. We have had no problem creating chances but just couldn't score them so it's good we're finding the net and experiencing that little bit of good fortune that brought about our second goal.
The fan's player ratings Hahnemann 7; Zubar 7, Craddock 7,Berra 7, Ward 5; Foley 6, Guedioura 8(Mancienne 59 6), Henry 7, D Jones 6 (Keogh 70 6), Jarvis 7 (Ebanks-Blake 79 6); Doyle 7
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