Burnley 1, Wolves 2: Bill Howell's big match verdict
But the dead have risen before. Albion were bottom on the final day.
Portsmouth and Fulham have masterminded great escapes in recent times, so despite the fact that Wolves have played well ever since luck (or should that be Richard Stearman?) gifted Wigan all three points at Molineux, Mick cannot yet unpop the champagne corks.
And don’t even dare ask him if he can yet rest on his laurels.
Sparks flew at the post-match press conference. Big juicy rocket-like sparks.
Perhaps luck is still paying back Wolves for Burnley pipping them to the title on the last day of 1959-60 after Wolves and Spurs had danced toe-to-toe for the entire season.
Perhaps Turf Moor is just a lucky ground? Burnley have not won in their last nine top-flight home matches against Wolves since 1963 and Wolves have won four of their last five league visits here.
Good fortune or not, a second win in eight trips to the North-West was deserved.
It might not have been as historic as at Wigan in game two but it was far more significant. Not as sexy as an away win at Tottenham, but this was no canoodle with the office flirt.
This was wine and chocolates with the missus.
So much of the pre-match talk had been about the amount of goals they score, the amount of games where they cannot break their duck. Seven games out of 10 since beating Burnley before Christmas said the statistics.
‘‘One man up front? That’s a little cagey isn’t it Mick?’’, could sum up a good many pre-match dalliance with the press.
But Wolves do possess a real potency. And what they do not have in great speed, or skill, they have in all the clichés of heart, will and desire.
They’re organised, they’re resilient and now they’re well set for a second season at the top. Against anybody barring perhaps Arsenal at the Emirates, you just couldn’t rule them out picking up points in the run-in.
There are weaknesses. The deck of cards promised to collapse when Steven Thompson headed a lifeline. Backs were disappearing into walls so much was the pressure. Robbie Blake’s shot was spilled by Marcus Hahnemann but rebounded to a Wolves boot. Small margins. But crucial ones nonetheless.
So Lady Luck has at last smiled but the Fat Lady isn’t even yet in the theatre for her swansong. “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect,” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
McCarthy is a strong man. He’ll need to be as Villa Park and Upton Park await for the completion of this claret and blue trilogy.
