Wolves 2-0 Burnley: Makeshift Clarets dumped out of Carabao Cup at first hurdle

Head coach Scott Parker named five defenders in his starting XI while the Clarets finished the game with Connor Roberts in central midfield alongside 19-year-old debutant Tommy McDermott.

Despite starting the game brightly, the visitors never truly got a look in and Wolves eased to a comfortable home win, thanks to a Goncalo Guedes brace, to progress into the third round.

For Burnley, the game came at the worst time possible with all eyes on the final days of the transfer window ahead of the derby against Blackburn Rovers at Turf Moor on Saturday.

While the cup clearly isn’t Parker’s priority this season, he will still be concerned with the lack of depth and the lack of potency his side have shown in their last two games.

Parker made six changes to his Burnley side from the weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland.

Debuts were handed out to Joe Worrall and Bashir Humphreys in defence, while Hannibal Mejbri was thrown straight in after being confirmed as a Burnley player this morning.

Shurandy Sambo, meanwhile, received his first start after coming off the bench against Sunderland on Saturday.

Parker named five defenders in his side, with CJ Egan-Riley and Luke McNally also featuring along with Worrall, Humphreys and Sambo.

Four youngsters – Will Hugill, Joe Westley, Tommy McDermott and Vernon Masara – were named on the bench.

Lyle Foster, linked with a move to Ipswich Town, was also named among the substitutes.

Thirteen players missed out in total, some through injury and some amid speculation regarding their futures ahead of Friday’s 11pm transfer deadline.

The 14 players not involved were: James Trafford, Jordan Beyer, Hannes Delcroix, Hjalmar Ekdal, Vitinho, Josh Cullen, Aaron Ramsey, Enock Agyei, Manuel Benson, Luca Koleosho, Mike Tresor, Nathan Redmond, Zeki Amdouni and Wout Weghorst.

The latter two, Amdouni and Weghorst, are close to sealing moves to Benfica and Ajax respectively, having been pictured in Lisbon and Amsterdam today.

Vitinho, meanwhile, is being strongly linked with a return to Brazil to join Botafogo, while question marks remain over the futures of Trafford, Benson and Koleosho.

Trafford, however, travelled to Molineux and took part in the warm-up with the two other goalkeepers.

Wolves made 10 changes to their side from their 6-2 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.

Despite their makeshift starting XI, Burnley started the game well, popping the ball around brightly and almost getting in behind on a couple of occasions inside the opening minutes.

Vaclav Hladky, standing in for Trafford for a second time this season, was momentarily caught off guard by Craig Dawson’s ambitious attempt from within his own half, but thankfully for the Clarets the ball dropped comfortably wide.

The hosts threatened again in the 13th minute, this time from a crossed free kick as Boubacar Traore poked over from Pablo Sarabia’s back post delivery.

Hladky stopped Gary O’Neil’s side from taking an early lead with a great reaction stop, pushing Pedro Lima’s shot onto the post after the keeper had parried Daniel Podence’s effort into his path.

The stopper was forced into making another important save at his near post, this time to deny Chiquinho’s dangerous low drive.

At this point it was Hladky on his own against the entire Wolves team as he made another fabulous stop to keep the scores level, this time staying big to deflect Rayan Ait-Nouri’s shot over the bar following his mazy dribble into the Burnley box.

Just as the game was beginning to settle down, Wolves took the lead seven minutes before the interval with a goal out of nothing.

Pedro Lima’s run down the right flank was picked out and Hladky was unable to meet his dangerous cross in, giving Goncalo Guedes the simple task of steering home into the back of the empty net.

Parker made a triple change at the break, introducing Connor Roberts, Lucas Pires and 19-year-old youngster Tommy McDermott for his debut. CJ Egan-Riley, Josh Brownhill and Hannibal were the three to make way.

Burnley, just like the first half, made a bright start to the second period but soon found themselves going two down.

It was a soft goal to concede, with Burnley’s backline being cut wide open by one simple ball through the middle of the park. Guedes, the scorer of the first, doubled his tally with a clever dink past Hladky after having an age to pick his spot.

Burnley never seemed to recover and lacked any sort of urgency or potency in attack. Instead it was Wolves who looked more likely to score the game’s third goal.

Burnley could have made things interesting 13 minutes from time when substitute Roberts let fly on his weaker left foot. The Welshman’s effort had the keeper scrambling but it flew just wide of the far post.

Will Hugill, another bright spark from the academy, was then given 10 minutes to show what he can do replacing Worrall, who was able to walk off despite picking up a slight knock.

The remainder of the game fizzled out as Wolves settled on their comfortable lead to ease into the next round at Burnley’s expense.

TEAMS

Wolves: Bentley, Lima, Bueno, Dawson (Toti), Ait-Nouri (Doherty), Doyle, Traore (Lemina), Sarabia (Hwang), Podence, Chiquinho, Guedes (Bellegarde)

Subs not used: King, Strand Larsen, R. Gomes, Rawlings

Burnley: Hladky, Sambo, Worrall (Hugill), Humphreys, Egan-Riley (Pires), McNally, Hannibal (McDermott), Brownhill (Roberts), Massengo, Hountondji, Rodriguez (Foster)

Subs not used: Green, Esteve, Westley, Masara

Referee: Josh Smith