GEORGE Boyd hailed his stunning matchwinner against Premier League champions Manchester City as the most important goal of his career - and thinks three or four more wins will keep Burnley in the top flight.

Boyd’s superb half volley gave the Clarets a shock 1-0 win at Turf Moor on Saturday evening to boost their chances of remaining in the Premier League.

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Burnley had been four points adrift of safety at kick-off after resurgent Aston Villa triumphed 4-0 at Sunderland, but they moved to within a point of the Black Cats with a victory that took their points tally for the season to 25.

Boyd admitted his winner could prove vital in the survival race and with nine games to go he believes the pressure is all on Sunderland, where manager Gus Poyet has come in for real criticism.

“No-one expects us to stay in the division so we’ve not had the pressure of Sunderland or Villa, where the pressure is massive, they shouldn’t be in the relegation battle,” said the midfielder.

“I think that was the most important goal of my career and it gives us a great chance of staying up.

“I’m not sure how many points we need but I think maybe lower than previous seasons.

“We need three or four more wins just to make sure, but it’s good that more teams are in amongst it now.

“We knew the results from earlier in the day. It was just important to concentrate on our game but we knew if we got the three points we were right back in the mix.”

Burnley’s victory came in the middle of a run of eight successive games against top half teams – a run that some predicted could finish off their hopes of surviving the Premier League.

But the Clarets have taken 12 of their 25 points against teams in the top half of the table and Boyd says their 2-2 draw at City in December gave them belief that they could get another result against the reigning champions.

“I think people would have thought we’d have been far away from being safe now, but it was important just to stay in touch with these fixtures,” said Boyd, who also netted against City at the Etihad.

“But we know we can beat anyone on our day and we’ve proven that with this result.

“We seem to raise our game against the big teams and if we can do that against teams in amongst us we have a great chance of staying up.

“The bigger teams have world class players who can cut you open in a second but if you get amongst them and press them they don’t really like it, they’re not used to it.

“If you press them hard and tackle them, they’re not used to being tackled.

“We did that and a few long balls - not bad balls, diagonals to our strengths.

“We saw recently when they played Liverpool that they don’t track back as well as they go forward so we knew we could exploit that and we did.

“I think it was just about being unfamiliar, getting in their faces and playing to our strengths.”

Boyd was banned for three matches during his time at Hull last season after being found guilty of spitting at Joe Hart in a game against Manchester City, despite vehemently protesting his innocence.

He is glad he now has happier memories of games against City.

“Definitely with what happened there it’s nice for there to be a positive note,” he said.

“For the goal I said to Shacks (Jason Shackell) to head it back because there was no-one marking me on the edge of the box, but I think it was Kompany who headed it out.

“I just caught it sweetly and I think you know as soon as you hit it.

“It’s a special moment for the club to take four points off the champions this season.

“I don’t think anyone would have given us a chance today from the players in our dressing room.

“But we knew from playing at their place that we could cause them problems.

“We got in their faces again and it seemed to work.”