BURNLEY manager Owen Coyle admitted his players would be forgiven for feeling mugged after drawing with Birmingham, but believes it’s only a matter of time before they reap the rewards of their positive play.

Chris McCann’s first-half header looked as though it would be enough to end the Blues’ unbeaten away run, until Cameron Jerome rounded off a quick break from a corner to equalise with their first real shot on target.

But, after seeing his side dominate the Championship leaders for almost the entire 90 minutes, Coyle was determined to focus on the positives.

“If you’re to give that performance on a bi-weekly basis, such is the Championship, then you’re going to win an awful lot of games," he said.

“There are so many positives to take from it, and equally, hopefully, we can learn our lesson that while the game’s only 1-0 you can never switch off, particularly when you’re playing against some very good players.

"They’ve not been top of the league by accident; they’ve been there because they know how to win games and they’ve shown that.

“But from my end and looking at my group of players, I thought each and every one of them was magnificent from start to finish, with the passing and pace we played the game at, and I thought some of our football was really pleasing on the eye.”

Although Coyle was disappointed with the goal conceded, he was full of praise for a defence which had not only contained Birmingham’s potent strikeforce for long periods but had only had both Michael Duff and Clarke Carlisle passed fit the day before the game, while Christian Kalvenes made his first appearance for almost two months to replace the suspended Stephen Jordan.

“Michael Duff did very well because, make no mistake about it, that lad (Quincy Owusu-Abeyie) is a handful; he’s a quality player,” said Coyle.

“He had a couple of runs in the game, but I thought Michael sent a message out in the first 15 seconds where he sent a header about 30 yards and set the tone for his game.

"And that’s what it needs.

"It needs people, when it starts, to go and set a marker down, and I think he took a lot of confidence from that for his passing and timing of his tackles.

“Christian stepped into the breach and certainly didn’t look out of place.

"He did well and made some timely tackles, which he had to because Birmingham have got good players.

“But it's going to be important that if someone else misses out the person that comes in has to stake a claim to stay in.”

Coyle was also pleased with the way his side fought to regain the lead following Jerome’s 77th minute leveller.

“Having put so much into the game at that stage, I think it would have been very easy for the lads to feel sorry for themselves, but nothing could be further from the truth” he said.

“They raised their game and had numerous opportunities, I thought Wade Elliott was magnificent in the game, getting behind and creating real goalscoring opportunities, and Michael Duff had a shot that just whistled past the post.

“We were in the box so often that you were just expecting us, even at 1-1, to go and get the winning goal.

“It never transpired, but there are an awful lot of positives.”