MATCHWINNER Alan Mahon admitted his first goal for 14 months completed one of the best weeks of his career.

After scoring in the penalty shoot-out to knock Chelsea out of the Carling Cup in midweek, the midfielder came off the bench to secure a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on Saturday.

And Mahon was delighted that his 60th minute goal – his first since the 3-2 win at Colchester in September 2007 – cemented the Clarets’ position in the Championship’s top six.

“I’ve not scored for a while, but just to be a part of what’s going on at the moment at Burnley, it’s fantastic,” said the 30-year-old former Sporting Lisbon, Blackburn Rovers and Wigan midfielder.

“It’s been a really good week – probably one of the best weeks of my career so far in terms of the results and how things have gone.

“Wednesday was a great night but the league’s our bread and butter and we knew we had a job to do on Saturday. That’s the focus that the gaffer’s instilled in us, and we produced it on the day.

“The support we’ve had is fantastic, so we're delighted we’ve been able to produce that for the fans.

“QPR are a very good team, but we came here to win.”

Mahon had been on the pitch for just four minutes, following an injury to Chris Eagles, when his left-foot shot got the better of Radek Cerny to complete a hard fought comeback, after Robbie Blake's third of the season had cancelled out Dexter Blackstock's opener in the first half.

And Mahon insisted their recovery epitomised the strength of character within the squad.

“After the Chelsea game being such a high people are going to look at how we turn out after that. To go a goal down and come back the way we have, the lads have worked tremendously hard,” said the Dubliner, who admitted he had no qualms about how the team would react to beating the Premier League leaders.

“Personally, I wasn’t worried because we know what we’re capable of on a daily basis. There were high expectations and we’ve managed to do what we wanted to do.

“They go 1-0 up and you've got to defend a bit, but the lads fought back tremendously and everyone worked hard.

"The defence was absolutely fantastic I thought, and we all just pulled together.

“It’s a great win for us.”