CITY slumped to a fifth consecutive draw after looking like pulling off an impressive comeback at the City of Manchester Stadium.
The Blues fought back with strikes from Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kolo Toure and Craig Bellamy after conceding two early goals.
But the Clarets stole an equaliser three minutes from time to pick up their first away point of the season and put another dent in City's hopes of finishing in the top four.
With Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor returning from injury, there appeared little chance of resistance from Burnley but, as owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak are quickly learning, there is far more to the Premier League than merely spending fortunes on players.
The squad Owen Coyle has assembled cost a fraction of the one Hughes has at his disposal, but what they lack in star quality they go some way to making up for with endeavour, team spirit and an eye for an opportunity.
And it was with a sense of purpose that Graham Alexander drilled home the opening goal from the penalty spot after Joleon Lescott had handled Tyrone Mears' right-wing cross.
Any sense that was a fluke was quickly exposed, as was Wayne Bridge's defending, when Steven Fletcher doubled the visitors' lead.
Bridge has not quite delivered since his £10million move from Chelsea last January and speculation suggests Hughes has not abandoned the idea of bringing in a replacement.
Certainly a video of Burnley's second will not be on any showreel for the England international, who found himself upfield and totally helpless as Robbie Blake's quick free-kick opened up City.
Of the three men who filled the left-back area Bridge was supposed to be patrolling, it was Chris Eagles who received the ball. Fletcher's run was timed to perfection and the cross made his finish easy.
Few of City's expensive recruits were impressing.
Wright-Phillips was one and it was no surprise he was the man who struck two minutes before the break, his shot flicking off former City defender Stephen Jordan to raise hopes of a successful second-half comeback.
Within 13 minutes the seeds of a revival had reached full bloom, Burnley's marking coming under question on both occasions.
First Lescott got behind Clarke Carlisle at the far post to reach a Gareth Barry free-kick and steer it into Toure's path.
The City skipper was coming in as Burnley's defenders were rushing out. The ensuing tap-in was simplicity itself.
City's third was not quite a replica but the cross from Wright-Phillips, who had been sent galloping into the box by Stephen Ireland, was from the same side.
And Bellamy was also in oceans of space as he fired home the fifth goal of a very impressive season.
The Welshman set up Carlos Tevez as Burnley struggled to cope but the Argentina star was off target as he arrived at pace and tried to turn the ball home.
When Adebayor just failed to reach Martin Petrov's cross there was a sense Burnley would have one last opportunity to salvage themselves and substitute Kevin McDonald took that chance when it came.
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mat005, Macclesfield (07/11/2009 at 18:03)
kippax blue, costa calida, spain (07/11/2009 at 18:04)
The Sun is Shining Brightly in Spain!
Ian Ogley (07/11/2009 at 18:04)
Auntie Mary's Canary, My Blue Heaven (07/11/2009 at 18:09)
Get real guys.... we are going nowhere. It's not about gelling, settling in blah, blah, blah. It's about ability. Quite clearly, our management team, and many of the players,don't have it.
Time to go. Get someone with a proven pedigree in (Guus?) and move on. Our EPL position flatters to decieve, and I challenge any City fan to tell me when we have played well for anything more than a few minutes in any game this season.
It is perfectly clear that we are going NOWHERE! We can either accept that and be grateful taht we are already half way (20 points) to survival already, or look to bring in someone who can take us to where we'd like to be.
The present manager and coaching staff cannot do that.
Aaaargh!!!!
50 and mad for it (07/11/2009 at 18:09)
toure and lescott, hopeless. (don't give me that settling in nonsense).
we win our game in hand and still in top 4, what a joke. there must be some rank teams in the prem for that to happen. no point getting rid of hughes until the end of the season, but get rid we must
Coach, Oslo (07/11/2009 at 18:10)
The Horse, Cheadle (07/11/2009 at 18:10)
Has Tevez got a spoon on the end of his foot? Hughes Out!
Glyn Pardoe was my boyhood hero (07/11/2009 at 18:10)
Tick tock, tick tock - it's only a dream and you know it, The Real World (07/11/2009 at 18:10)
What we should bear in mind is that Burnley were able to rest all week, while all the big clubs were playing in European competitions.
Oh,wait a minute . . .
Capetonian (07/11/2009 at 18:13)
Nothing righteous about this one or this run.
Time for a bottle or two of Groote Post Sauvignon Blanc!
With this run of form, we'll probably win at Anfield.
adders, Co.Cavan ex Manchester (07/11/2009 at 18:14)
Overall, I see some lazy players making a lot of money and not giving too much in return.
If we continue to play like this, following the abject display at Brum, we can all forget any chance of winning a trophy and we will continue to give ammunition to those who slag us off.
And, to those who say, we are still 4th or 5th in the table. Cobblers! We should have by now been higher. What is wrong with our players ? They are paid a small fortune and are NOT delivering !
Peter Doherty. As good as it gets. (Was it really 37 years?) , Levenshulme (07/11/2009 at 18:14)
young blue (07/11/2009 at 18:14)
However many will be less sympathetic to our defence, namely Lescott. Since Dunne left we have been very poor in that area, summed up today. At times only Given's heroics have kept us clean sheets (Wolves, Birmingham etc.) and if we are going to challenge the top four then we need to end this slump and that means Hughes sorting out the defence. For a club of our standards and expectations, its just not good enough.
Straight to the point, Westhoughton (07/11/2009 at 18:15)
Hughes has now spent around 200 million plus on new players. The team is his own and they play the tactics he instills, therefore out diabolical performances are his fault, end of. He has brought in his own satff in every area of the club in an attempt to have no opposition. He removed Jim Cassell, sorry I forgot, he promoted Cassell to a position where he can scout the best footballing talent in Abu Dhabi, Yeah right, I'd would have left him where he was.
The owners want success, do the right thing and bring in a manager who can coach our obviously talented squad of players and produce results, which suggest an improvement, as with the crop of players we have, we are not performing anywhere near the level we should be.
If anyone has the nerve to say "WORK IN PROGRESS" or "WE WOULD HAVE LOST THAT GAME LAST SEASON" they want there head testing, there are no positives to be taken out of Hughes and his garbage tactics. We should not be conceeding three goals at home to Burnley, nevr mind drawing.
Come on Khaldoon, give this joker his P45 and salvage the rest of the season. With our financial clout we can surely attract a top quality manager. Let Hughes go and manage Abergele, thats about his level.
Blue is a Manc thing, manchester (07/11/2009 at 18:17)
DeJong should have come on to sure them up once we were at 3-2 because based on the first half it was a certainty that we would concede late on.
On a completely different subject, I have been going to City for over forty years and I have never been so disgusted by the behaviour of the fans in the so called singing section. When we had them unilaterally foisted on us we thought it might improve the atmosphere but it has also meant that we have to stand all the game now. But today they have out done themselves. Such big and brave men reducing a couple of little boys to tears. These kids have sat in the same seats for the past couple of seasons and today obviously because it was a sell out further in front of them were some idiots who didn't get in the 'singing section' and decided they would stand and when one of the fathers asked them to sit down they were subjected to a torrent of foul mouthed abuse. Then the other part of the singing section start to sing to the parents and children ' f off to the family stand' and the children started to cry. Well done one and all!!
CTID and beyond
luvpump, mars (07/11/2009 at 18:17)
bubba, cleethorpes (07/11/2009 at 18:19)
HAYMAN BACK IN BOLTON, WESTHOUGHTON (07/11/2009 at 18:21)
karen tyler (07/11/2009 at 18:22)
Heads need to roll.
Hughes has to accept that Lescott cannot cope with his price tag - drop him or try him at left back!
Knowing what a wobbly defence we have, why bring on Petrov when we were winning instead of De Jong?
Also need another Captain
News please on Nedum and Kompany?
If Robinho goes because we have world class players like Petrov, SWP and Bellamy ( who would not get a look in for the top 4 clubs) then I would seriously question our manager!
Have still not seen what in my opinion is our best team available but starting to feel that it no longer matters!
Is It Me? (07/11/2009 at 18:22)
Wayne Clarke, picking up that wheel barrow!, Ashton-under-Lyne (07/11/2009 at 18:22)
If this guy stays in charge, be prepared for mid table mediocrity!
Bert Trautmann's FG42 , The Eastern Front of Manchester (07/11/2009 at 18:23)
Joking aside, that was a defensive disgrace. An embarrassment. People where I work get verbal warnings for making mistakes and it would take many of us five years to earn what some of these overpaid dolts get paid in a week! Five away defeats from five for Burnley - FIVE AWAY DEFEATS FROM FIVE!!!! Same old City. Shameful.
To get back into the game before half-time, to equalise then take the lead was a superb attacking display, fantastic to watch - the new City. But our defence (Hughes's defence, don't forget that) were so bad, they may as well have strolled around, laughing at us, waving their pay slips. What the hell do they do at Carrington all week??? Everyone knows how poor we are defensively, how poor we are at defending set-pieces - so why aren't we addressing this in training? They should be doing nothing else, starting tomorrow morning! Our attackers have a mountain to climb when the back four are performing like this, and their confidence going for goal can only suffer because of it.
After just seeing Hughes's MOTD interview, there was clearly anger in his face right from the start, as if he'd just been in an argument. That, to me, paints a picture of a man just come from a blazing row in the dressing room. You could see it in his face. I don't mind, as long as something positive comes from it. If not, then it won't matter how many top-quality players he buys in the future - he won't be the man to take us forward.
SWP - MotM! God bless you, son. But your efforts were wasted.
Btw, I'm gonna smack anyone who says either "don't worry, we've still a game in hand" or "we're still the team with the fewest defeats". Wake up, this isn't a blip. There's something intrinsically wrong when four good defenders and an England international def-mid are playing at sixes and sevens and I'm sure Hughes is thinking if he can't fix things in January, then it's his job. So, come on, Hughes, fix it! Unlike Liverpool, we CAN afford to sack our manager.
CTID
Portsmouth Blue (07/11/2009 at 18:27)
The Original Blue John, London (07/11/2009 at 18:27)
garden angel, the hague (07/11/2009 at 18:27)