The most important goal of my career

The 29-year-old drilled in a stunning volley on the hour to send the champions packing, and keep Burnley’s survival hopes very much alive and kicking. It was Boyd’s fifth goal of the season, and the joint club-record signing admitted: “It’s a special moment for the club, to take four points off the champions is huge. It’s a massive win for us, it brings a few more teams into the mix. “It’s probably the most important goal of my career, definitely. It’s a massive three points and hopefully gives us the confidence to finish things off. “It sets us up nicely for the next nine games.” Burnley went into the game four points adrift of safety after Aston Villa’s 4-0 win at Sunderland, and Boyd added: “We knew the results, but it was just important to concentrate on our game, we knew if we got the three points we’d be right back in the mix, and with the form we’re in - teams around us are probably not in the same form - it gives us a lot of confidence. “I don’t think anyone would have given us a chance outside the dressing room, but we knew from playing at their place that we could cause them problems and we got in their faces again, and it seemed to work.” Many pundits felt the Clarets would be out of the picture altogether after a testing run of fixtures, with trips to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, and City at home, and Boyd noted: “I think they will have thought we’d be far away, but it’s important to stay in touch. “We know we can beat anyone on our day, and this keeps us right among it. “We’ve been here before, you see teams above you winning and it deflates you, but this helps us. “It may be a lower total that previous seasons that keeps you up, maybe three or four more wins, but it’s good more teams are in it now.” The Clarets now go to Southampton on Saturday before home games against Spurs and Arsenal, but the Scotland international believes playing the top sides suits Burnley: “If anyone saw us at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago, we battered them. “We seem to raise our game against the big teams, and if we can do that against the teams in and around us as well, we’ll have a great chance of staying up.”

The most important goal of my career - George Boyd