Owen Coyle Delighted With Burnley Point At Manchester City

Burnley had taken a two-goal lead at the City of Manchester Stadium, but came close to losing and were reliant upon a late equaliser from substitute Kevin McDonald.

"If you'd have offered us a point before the match we'd have welcomed it," he told Sky Sports News.

"But, we were in a great position during the match to earn all three.

"Manchester City have undoubted quality and I was delighted with how my lads went about it and acquitted themselves for the duration of the match."

The Clarets controlled the first half, with a penalty from captain Graham Alexander followed by a tap in for striker Steven Fletcher, before Shaun Wright-Phillips pulled one back via a Stephen Jordan deflection.

"I felt we moved the ball very freely, and created opportunities. Shay Given had an unbelievable save at 1-0, and then we scored a very good goal.

"If we'd have gone in at 2-0, it would have been a great position."

Coyle praised the "world class" quality of his side's opponents, and lauded his player's work ethic and desire when they went behind.

"It would have been easy to feel sorry for yourselves, and think everything had conspired against you, but they showed no fear and they kept going forward," he said.

McDonald's 87th-minute equaliser was a "fantastic footballing goal", that gave the Premier League newcomers their first points on the road this season.

"I felt in all the away games that we've had chances to score goals, and we've contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot with some poor defending, collectively as a team," Coyle added.

Coyle believes that the performance can be used as a platform to build the foundations for the club's top-tier survival.

"Where we've come from in such a short period of time - it's getting on for two years since I've been in charge -  we were languishing in the Championship, and we've got aspirations of staying in the Premier League.

"To do that we're going to need performances very similar to that today, to earn points in the best league in the world."

Nick Price, Goal.com UK