FORMER Burnley assistant manager John Ward is hoping to celebrate a second happy Easter at Turf Moor on Saturday in the "massive" match between Burnley and Wolves.

Four years ago Ward was manager of Bristol City as the club was promoted on Easter weekend courtesy of Grimsby Town failing to win on Good Friday.

"I was only talking about that the other day," said Ward, who is now number two to Dave Jones at Wolves, a position he held under Adrian Heath at Burnley.

"I'll never forget the ovation I got that day from the Burnley fans, it was very special and a recognition of our achievement in going up."

But Ward is aware there will be no room for sentiment on Saturday afternoon as both teams desperately need the three points to strengthen their respective positions.

While the Clarets will be looking to cement their place in the play-offs, Wolves need to keep West Brom at bay in the push for automatic promotion.

"We are delighted that we are playing a team that needs the win as much as we do," admitted Ward.

"Our next three games are against Burnley, Man City and Millwall but that will suit us. If our players can't get up for those matches we have a big problem.

"We have not won for four games but three of those have been draws and we are quite happy within the club that things are okay. Promotion is still in our own hands and the aim is still to win the title.

"The results of our next two games will be crucial and everything will look very different on Monday night if we have won them both or lost them both.

"At this stage of the season it is down to mental preparation and mental stability.

"Burnley are in the same position because they have had a couple of results they would prefer to be different. Now we will see how they cope with it."

Ward admitted that the arrival of Paul Gascoigne at Turf Moor had been viewed with interest at Molineux and he said: "I feel it was a good decision. Stan did it before with Ian Wright and he will be hoping for the same result.

"I saw his debut against Bradford and I thought he did well. Burnley deserved to win and you could see that Gazza had fired people's imaginations."

Ward enjoyed his return to Turf Moor as he said: "I like the club a great deal. It was nice to see Sam Ellis, who was my skipper at Lincoln City, and Gareth Taylor who I know from Bristol Rovers. Burnley, like Wolverhampton, is a proper football town and even though I only had a short spell there I loved it."

Ward is looking forward to new signing Kevin Cooper making his debut after his £1million move from Wimbledon this week, new defender Jacob Laursen could also figure and he has his "fingers crossed" that the prolific Dean Sturridge will be fit to return to the attack.

Whatever happens he knows that unlike four years ago there will be no promotion party for his side at Turf Moor and both clubs have a lot more work to do before the end of the season.

His whole attention is focused on the job in hand but Ward is one name that could be in the frame for the job at Burnley's Lancashire rivals Preston North End in the summer.

He has made no secret of his desire to return to management and even if Wolves went up the lure of being a number one again could be enough for him to throw his hat into the Deepdale ring.