JOHN Ward strengthened his claim for the job of Wolves boss on a permanent basis by taking three points from his former employers at Turf Moor yesterday.

Burnley's former assistant manager guided the Midlanders to their third win in four games since the sacking of Colin Lee thanks to Lee Naylor's 86th-minute strike.

"I'm thrilled to bits. It's the first time we've had back-to-back wins at league level and that sets us up to get something from the next part of the season," said Ward, who was interviewed for the vacant managerial position on Sunday.

Former Southampton boss Dave Jones was reported to have watched Wolves 2-1 win and Dave Bassett has also been tipped for the post. But Ward's case must have been helped as Wolves hit back from conceding an early Graham Branch goal to subject the Clarets to their fifth straight defeat.

"I said that if we lost four (over the holidays) the club would be in dire straits. We have taken nine points and given the club a chance, for whoever the manager is. That decision is in the hands of someone else," added the ex-Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and York City chief.

"The vital thing was the reaction to the first goal against us and I was very pleased that the players seemed to regard that as a nuisance rather than a major obstacle.

"We kept going forward, were positive and could have been ahead by half-time. The keeper made a great save from George (Ndah) and made some good saves throughout.

"For an away performance we tried to be very positive and the players enjoyed that kind of approach."

Wolves' late winner came direct from a Lee Naylor free-kick which was missed by Carl Robinson and bounced past Nik Michopoulos and into the far corner of the net.

"It was a very important run by Carl Robinson.

"The only thing we didn't have was three or four runs into the box because with five minutes to go we didn't want problems at the other end.

"Lee Naylor always hits the target and Carl was very important to distract the keeper," said Ward.