The Wolves substitute Tawanda Chirewa struck within seconds of coming off the bench as César Peixoto’s side came from behind to extend Burnley’s home misery at Turf Moor to 21 games without a win.

Chirewa had just replaced Sean Neave in the 72nd minute when Mateus Mané pounced on Igor Julio’s heavy touch and sent the 23-year-old Zimbabwe international through to strike an angled shot, which flew into the net despite Gregoire Coudert getting his hands to the effort.

It was a vital victory for the visitors, who had fallen behind to Jamie Vardy’s first Burnley goal before levelling through Fer López.

For Burnley it was a huge blow. Their last league win at home was when they beat Leeds in the Premier League on 18 October, meaning their horror run will stretch over a year. Sheffield Wednesday established an unwanted English Football League record last season by going 23 games without a win at Hillsborough.

Burnley’s next home game is against Portsmouth, with bitter rivals Blackburn then scheduled to visit Turf Moor on 22 November. The Clarets were denied victory on home soil on Tuesday night when Ivan Mesik equalised for Charlton in the sixth minute of added time.

Vardy, who celebrates his 40th birthday in January, illustrated that his finishing instincts are as sharp as ever with an emphatic 20th-minute finish which gave Wolves keeper José Sá no chance.

However, the home side failed to turn their first-half superiority into more goals and were hit by a sucker punch when a mistake by the captain, Kyle Walker, led to López side-footing an equaliser before the break.

Wolves, weakened by an injury crisis that worsened this week when Raúl Jiménez and Adam Armstrong joined the list of absentees, travelled north having lost their previous two games. They improved after half-time, although Jacob Bruun Larsen lifted a decent chance over for the hosts.

Coudert saved Fer’s free-kick and Rafiki Saïd’s snap shot before Chirewa came on to score the winner. Tommy Doyle spurned a golden chance to add gloss to the scoreline late on, but Wolves held on for three much-needed points before boos rang around Turf Moor at the final whistle.