Weakened Wolves still up for the challenge, insists Jones

WOLVES boss Dave Jones insists the Carling Cup remains a top priority despite preparing to name a weakened side for tonight’s visit of Burnley.

Jones intends to rest some of the stars who engineered one of the Premiership’s great comebacks on Saturday to beat Leicester 4-3 after trailing 3-0 at half-time. And he is putting faith in his fringe players to continue the five-match unbeaten run which began with the second round success over Darlington last month.

Jones said: “This competition is as vital to us as any other. Nothing is better than winning games and if you lose the feeling is still the same no matter if it is in the Premiership, the Carling Cup or Europe.

“Winning breeds confidence and you saw that after the win against Darlington. That seemed to spark this mini run we’re on so we want to make sure that continues.”

Denis Irwin, Jody Craddock and Henri Camara are likely to be rested with one eye on next Saturday’s trip to Middlesbrough. Oleg Luzhny and Isaac Okoronkwo are almost certain to start in defence while Mark Kennedy and Dean Sturridge could both figure if they successfully shake off injuries.

But Hassan Kachloul is ruled out under the terms of his loan agreement from Aston Villa and Paul Ince is unlikely to figure having suffered with a cold all last week.

Jones is refusing to get carried away by the extraordinary comeback against the Foxes which lifted Wolves out of the bottom three for the first time this season. Instead he has dwelled on his side’s first-half display and insists similar periods of ineptitude will not be tolerated again.

Jones added: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out what we didn’t do in the first half and what we did do in the second. I am grateful for those three points but we have got to be on our guard against getting into that sort of situation again this season.”

Burnley will be without the services of Paul Weller and Luke Chadwick.

Weller suffered a recurrence of a calf injury four minutes into Saturday’s draw with Millwall, a game which also saw Chadwick sustain a toe problem.

Alan Moore and Mark McGregor remain sidelined by ankle and knee injuries respectively, while David May continues to struggle with hamstring trouble.