Kightly keeps Wolves flying high

Kightly: Brace

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Wolves moved six points clear at the top of the Championship table with a 2-0 win over ten-man Burnley at Molineux.

Michael Kightly was the hero for Mick McCarthy's men with both goals to keep them flying high at the summit of the Championship.

To compound Burnley's misery Clarke Carlisle was sent off ten minutes from time for a second bookable offence.

Wolves skipper Karl Henry had the first real chance of the game after seven minutes, firing over the bar from 25 yards when he had more time than he thought to bring the ball down and at least hit the target.

Kightly again came within inches of giving the hosts an early lead, while on-loan Michael Mancienne was looking more than assured at the back to keep Burnley at bay.

The home side continued to look most likely to break the deadlock but could not find the killer touch needed to beat former West Brom keeper Jensen, despite having six corners inside the opening 25 minutes.

Kightly and Carlos Edwards were terrorising Burnley's full-backs on either flank and it was the former who finally grabbed the opener after 31 minutes.

Opener

But the 22-year-old made no mistake at the second time of asking, firing the ball past the Burnley shot stopper from 12 yards.

Chris Iwelumo had two chances to further the home side's lead as the half drew to a close but Jensen stood firm to keep the Clarets in with a fighting chance.

Kightly fired across the face of goal shortly after the restart before Carl Ikeme was forced into making his first real save of the game from Chris Eagles.

Burnley took heart from the chance and started to pose more of a threat than they had in the first half.

However, they were losing their discipline and Chris McCann was lucky to stay on the pitch after a lunging challenge on Richard Stearman just before the hour mark - the fourth Burnley player to receive yellow.

McCarthy's charges regained control of the encounter and Iwelumo should have doubled Wolves' lead after 65 minutes but Jensen produced a stunning reaction save to keep out the Scotland striker's header from four yards out.

Clincher

Dave Jones twice fired wide of the target within the space of three minutes before Kightly ended the encounter as a spectacle with his second of the game after 75 minutes.

The impressive midfielder picked up the ball on the halfway line and played in Ebanks-Blake down the right before receiving it back eight yards out and firing past Jensen.

Carlisle then saw red in the 80th minute as Burnley's five-match unbeaten run came to an end.