HOW appropriate that Burnley's faint play-off hopes should finally be laid to rest at what is now officially a graveyard.

History needs to be traced back almost 20 years to find the last goal, let alone the last result achieved at Molineux.

Six straight defeats constitutes a far from happy hunting ground as the Wolves have killed off Burnley time and time again over the past two decades.

And six became a sorry seven as Glenn Hoddle's side finally kept alive their own outside chances of making the top six, while administering the last rites to the Clarets.

Kenny Miller's clinical finish seven minutes before the break sucked the life from Steve Cotterill's fatigued side.

Old gold skipper Paul Ince then rolled back the years with a stunning second goal on the hour mark.

And it was left to referee Carl Boyeson to hammer the final nail in the coffin in stoppage time, harshly sending off John McGreal for a petty foul that means his spring break starts a few days early.

The central defender will sit out the weekend trip to Sheffield United before Burnley can finally put their legs up for a well-earned two-week break.

And how they looked like needing that recuperation time in arguably the most lacklustre performance of the season.

Other than a 15-minute spell at the start of the second half, Wolves always looked the sharper of these mid-table teams.

And as Cotterill later admitted, Burnley looked like a side that knew safety was pretty much assured for another season.

For the second game running the manager stuck with the same starting 11, although on-loan Ipswich striker Dean Bowditch dropped back to the left side of a five-man midfield as the Clarets reverted to the formation that has served them well all season.

And the 18-year-old almost unlocked the door early on, sliding a peach of a pass through to John Oster that just fizzed off the slick surface and denied the winger a clear run at goal.

Clarets stopper Brian Jensen was then perfectly placed to tip over Lee Naylor's ambitious 35-yard free kick, which took a slight deflection and looked destined for the top corner.

There was more danger in the Burnley box in the 18th minute when a Mo Camara mis-kick fell kindly to Seol Ki-Hyeon, but the South Korean striker failed to trouble Jensen by ballooning the chance into the groaning banks of Wolves fans behind the goal.

Gary Cahill's perfectly timed tackle then denied Carl Cort a run on goal as Wanderers' three-pronged strike force continued to ask questions of the Burnley rearguard.

There was brief respite when Bowditch's persistence allowed lone striker Jean-Louis Valois a strike on goal that was deflected for a corner.

And when the Frenchman swung over the resulting flag kick, Frank Sinclair - fresh from his first goal for the club last weekend - bounced around in frustration as his free header eight yards out thudded into the turf and bounced harmlessly over the bar.

Cort soon spurned a golden chance to put Hoddle's side ahead just after the half hour. Left back Naylor, who enjoyed the freedom of Molineux in the opening half, again swung his hammer of a left foot and the Wolves striker, stunned to find the ball reaching him at the far post, made an awful connection.

However, in the 38th minute top scorer Miller made no such mistake from six yards to finally break the deadlock.

Ince lobbed a free kick into the box and Cort made his aerial presence tell to flick the ball goalwards.

Miller was first to react ahead of a posse of defenders and the Scottish international hooked the ball home from six yards for his 17th goal of the campaign.

Some choice half-time words from Cotterill finally paid dividends and the Clarets sprung from the traps to enjoy their best spell of the game at the start of the second half.

Valois set up Peter Whittingham within 45 seconds of the restart and the on-loan Aston Villa midfielder drove a shot from the edge of the area straight into the chest of Michael Oakes.

Seconds later, the Clarets had a decent claim for a penalty when Oster crossed and Gary Cahill's header looked to strike Jody Craddock on the arm, only for Boyeson to stand unimpressed.

Micah Hyde and Bowditch were both off target as the momentum built. But just as the signs were looking promising, disaster struck as former England midfielder Ince put the game out of reach.

The veteran midfielder dummied Hyde 30 yards out by ducking under a bouncing ball and took a few more steps forward before rifling the ball past a static Jensen and into the bottom right hand corner.

Ian Moore and Graham Branch were soon introduced for Valois and Whittingham as Cotterill looked to salvage something from the night.

But the fight came following a crunching collision between McGreal and Ince, which first resulted in the Burnley defender blatantly blocking the Wolves man during a counter attack.

Ince responded in typically fiery fashion by locking foreheads with McGreal and the result was yellow cards for both experienced campaigners.

The significance of that incident was only realised in the closing seconds as Naylor played a one-two and dropped a shoulder to wrong-foot McGreal before being upended on the edge of the box.

With the game well beyond Burnley, a more sensible referee might have had a quiet word with the experienced defender.

Instead, Boyeson hastily dug into his top pocket and a miserable night had a fitting epitaph.

WOLVES: Oakes, Naylor, Craddock, Lescott, Edwards, Olofinjana, Ince, Kennedy, Seol, Miller, Cort. Sub: Ricketts (for Miller 79) Not used: Jones, Andrews, Cooper, Clarke.

GOALS: Miller 38, Ince 60

REF: C Boyeson. Common sense needed. 6

BOOKINGS: McGreal 73, Ince 73

SENT OFF: McGreal 90

ATT: 24,336