FRUSTRATED Burnley manager Owen Coyle rued injuries to central defensive pairing Clarke Carlisle and Steven Caldwell in yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at Wolves.

Both players were withdrawn in either half at Molineux, with Carlisle going off after Nenad Milijas scored the opener – prompting a Premier League debut for Michael Duff – and captain Caldwell limping off after Kevin Doyle had wrapped up the win for Mick McCarthy’s men.

Coyle did not know the extent of the injuries, or whether he would have either available for the Boxing Day game against his former club, Bolton Wanderers.

But he was sure that the untimely knocks contributed to another disappointing away day for the Clarets.

“We came here to win a game and all it does is add fuel to the fire about the away form, and rightly so,” said Coyle, whose side have earned just one point from a possible 27 on their travels.

“I’ve told the players they are the only ones who can change that.

“I don’t take anything away from Wolves because Doyle and (Sylvan) Ebanks-Blake were a handful all day.

“Partly that’s because they are very good players, but partly because our centre backs took knocks.

"Clarke Carlisle injured himself early in the game and that contrived to play a part in the first goal and the skipper felt his groin in the first half, and that was probably something to do with the second goal.

"I believe we would have defended both better, but we didn’t and found ourselves two goals down.

"At this level you have to defend well, and I think it was very obvious that we lost two terrible goals.

"There were probably two or three individual mistakes within the first one."

However, after coming back from a goal down to earn a point at home to Arsenal last Wednesday, Coyle admitted he was again encouraged by the manner in which his players tried to stage a recovery.

And he stressed his side had not been hindered by a tough midweek encounter.

"If we’d had any aftermath of our exertions the other night I don’t think we would have seen a team taking the game to Wolves," said Coyle.

"That blows that theory out of the water, because it was all about us pushing to get back in the game and creating chances.

"But that’s the last three games we have found ourselves going behind.

"In the previous two we have come back to get points and to all intents and purposes we could have done that today too.

"We carried the fight and had numerous opportunities.

"I felt we should have had a stonewall penalty when (Steven) Fletcher was dragged and there was one other incident that could have been.

"I’m not saying the referee can see everything, but that’s why he has assistants."