Manchester City 3-3 Burnley match report: The Daily Mirror verdict

The eight-hour flight to Abu Dhabi today, to meet with Manchester City's owners, will seem like an eternity for Mark Hughes.

Despite his bullish stance in the immediate aftermath of a fifth straight league draw, Hughes knows the patience of his employers and their stated faith in him is being pushed to the limit.

Going to the homeland of your employers and paymasters for an exhibition match on the back of such a miserable run will no doubt prove a chastening experience for Hughes.

Having been given more than £200million to spend on transforming City into a top four side with title aspirations, owner Sheikh Mansour is entitled to more than he is currently getting.

City may still be a work in progress, as Hughes maintained, but there comes a point where the excuses must stop and the players he has brought to the club have to deliver.

The City boss spoke with the polished spin of a seasoned politician after his side threw away victory by conceding an 88th minute equaliser having hauled their way back from 2-0 down.

But impressive rhetoric will not save Hughes if his players continue to play so poorly and squander points in a manner City fans had hoped their under-achieving team had overcome.

A defence that cost £60m and was hand-picked by Hughes for its experience and solidity should have had enough nous to keep Burnley at bay and close the game out.

But City's fragile back our, with left-back Wayne Bridge the biggest culprit, went AWOL late on, allowing Owen Coyle's spirited side to claim a deserved first away point of the season.

"We'll look back on the goals conceded and you can pinpoint where individuals could have done better," said Hughes.

"Maybe Wayne Bridge, on a couple of occasions, made the wrong decisions and things happened from that point on. But it wasn't just Wayne.

"We talk all the time about consecutive errors and recognising that when someone makes a mistake, other people have to react and make sure another one doesn't follow.

"If you've conceded goals in similar situations in the past then you have the benefit of that knowledge and you nip things in the bud because you've recognised them.

"But we have a group of experienced Premier League players and that recognition of situations before they develop should be there.

"Teams are not going to come to our ground and just allow us to play the expansive game we want to play. You have to earn the right to play.

"In the first half we didn't, in the second half we did, because we got back into a winning position. But you need to see games out and we didn't do that.

"The more we play together, the better we'll be. We'll always be an attacking threat because of the players we have.

"But I talk time and time again about recognising when the momentum changes and goes against you.

"You've got to make sure you ride the storm and then come again. At the moment we're not showing that capability."

Whether Hughes can develop that winning mentality and ability to see games out among the players at his disposal remains to be seen. If so, he needs to develop it before it's too late.

After 32 minutes City looked to be heading to their first home defeat of the season. Joleon Lescott was penalised for handball and Graham Alexander duly converted from the spot.

And just after the half-hour, Gareth Barry lost posession and Bridge was nowhere to be seen, allowing Chris Eagles to cross from the left and Steven Fletcher to score from close-range.

City rallied before half-time with a deflected strike from Shaun Wright-Phillips, then turned on the style with goals from Kolo Toure and Craig Bellamy to put themselves in a winning position.

But like so many City teams before them, they capitulated within sight of the finishing line, Bridge again at fault as his poor header went straight to substitute David Nugent.

Nugent found Fletcher, whose superby-weighted header found sub Kevin McDonald, who steered the ball past Shay Given with three minutes left.

For a club that has perfected the art of tragi-comedy over the years, this was typical City, who almost see it as their duty to frustrate their loyal and long-suffering fans.

With all due respect to Aston Villa, Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham and Burnley, those are the sides City need to be beating if they are serious about breaking into the top-four.

Next up for City is a trip to Liverpool on November 21, where a calamitous performance like this will see them lose further ground on the pack at the top of table.

Man City: Given 6; Zabaleta 5, Toure 5, Lescott 5, Bridge 4; Wright-Phillips 7, Barry 6, Ireland 7, Bellamy 7; Adebayor 5, Tevez 5 (Petrov 73, 5)

Burnley: Jensen 6; Mears 6, Caldwell 6, Carlisle 6, Jordan 6; Alexander 7, Bikey 6 (Gudjonsson 62, 5); Blake 6 (McDonald 62, 7), Elliott 6, Eagles 6 (Nugent 71, 7); Fletcher 7