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

For Burnley it was a huge blow. Their last league win at home was when they beat Leeds in the Premier League on October 18, meaning their horror run will stretch over a year.

Sheffield Wednesday set an unwanted record last season when they set the longest winless run in the history of English Football League after they went 23 games without a win at Hillsborough.

The Clarets’ next home game is against Portsmouth, with bitter rivals Blackburn then scheduled to visit Turf Moor on November 22.

Burnley 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 Jose Sa no chance.

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

Wolves, weakened by an injury crisis that worsened this week when Raul Jimenez and Adam Armstrong joined the casualty list, travelled north having lost their previous two games.

They improved after the break after Jacob Bruun Larsen had lifted a decent chance over for the hosts.

Coudert saved Fer’s free-kick and Rafiki Said’s snapshot 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.