BURNLEY hero Kevin McDonald's late equaliser at Manchester City crowned one of the best days of his life.
The Carnoustie-born youngster celebrated his 21st birthday last Wednesday, and gave himself the best present possible when he turned home Steven Fletcher's knock-back to earn Burnley a 3-3 Barclays Premier League draw on Saturday.
It was the Clare
ts' first away point since they returned to the top flight after a 33-year absence, and for McDonald, it was a day he will never forget.
"It is one of the best days of my life so far," said McDonald, whose goal made it a hat-trick of Scottish scorers for the Turf Moor side. Graham Alexander opened their account with a penalty after 19 minutes, before his Scotland team-mate Fletcher doubled the lead after 32 minutes.
McDonald is yet to start a game for Burnley in the top flight but manager Owen Coyle is a big believer in the former Dundee player.
Prepared to risk a heavier defeat in an effort to salvage something, Coyle's faith in McDonald received its reward.
"It was an unbelievable game just watching from the bench," he said. "To then come on and score; it doesn't get any better than that."
The result keeps Burnley nestled in mid-table.
Such is the disparity in income, Coyle believes one of City's major stars is probably being paid more than his entire squad put together. Yet Coyle has instilled an impressive spirit and determination. "We are written off by a lot of people but coming to a place like this and getting a result sends out the message that we are here and wanting to stay in the Premier League," said Coyle.
"That is what we are aiming to do. The players in our dressing-room might not have cost the same money as everyone else, but we can still pass the ball and we have the same spirit.
"We could have let our heads drop and felt sorry for ourselves. But we kept battling away and got our rewards in the end."
Meanwhile, Mark Hughes insists City's current dip in form will prove to be temporary. After his big-spending stars lit up the early weeks of the Premier League, beating Arsenal and scoring three times in defeat at Manchester United, City are suddenly struggling.
This was their fifth consecutive draw and instead of pushing the title contenders, Hughes' side are trying to avoid plummeting any further. Yet the Welshman is not concerned about the long-term prognosis.
"We are just having a little period where we are not quite able to make best use of the advantages we have," said the City manager. "But it will turn out to our benefit very soon. I am sure about that."
In a way, City are victims of their own success. By making such a flying start, Hughes' expensively assembled outfit gave the impression of having got their settling-in period out of the way ultra-quickly. It has proved to be something of an illusion, with significant flaws appearing in key areas.
Left-back is one with Wayne Bridge failing to produce the consistency Hughes expected when he spent £10million last January to lure the England internationalist from Chelsea. Bridge went AWOL as the excellent Fletcher put Burnley two ahead, and Clarets manager Coyle admitted it was an area his side tried to exploit.
"People might view this as a bonus point, but we believed in our gameplan," said Coyle. "I felt if we took care of the ball in the middle third we would create opportunities, and we raided down the right very well during the first-half in particular."
The picture for City is certainly not totally negative. Craig Bellamy remains in top form; Shaun Wright-Phillips is not far behind, and both Shay Given and Gareth Barry have both proved themselves extremely useful additions. But Joleon Lescott is taking time settling in, giving away the penalty Alexander stuck away to put the visitors in front; Pablo Zabaleta is neither a pacy attacking presence nor solid defensively at full-back, and Emmanuel Adebayor has not quite found the form which saw him score four times before serving a four-match ban in September. "Maybe we are suffering because of increased expectation," said Hughes.
The problem for the City manager is that while he is about to head to Abu Dhabi for a friendly with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday which would have been a perfect opportunity to sort out those issues, with the exception of Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido, the fit members of his senior squad will depart for various destinations on international duty. It will leave little preparation time for the visit to Anfield on 21 November, when City need to start turning draws back into victories.
