Treacy makes instant mark as Clarets draw

REPUBLIC of Ireland winger Keith Treacy celebrated his Burnley debut by rescuing a point in the Clarets’ 2-2 draw against Watford at Turf Moor on Saturday.

Treacy only joined Burnley from Preston last week but he made an instant impression when he came off the bench after 64 minutes.

Watford led 2-0 thanks to goals from Craig Forsyth and Irish forward Mark Yeates before Treacy’s introduction sparked a revival.

Treacy, who will hope to get a run out in Wednesday international friendly against Croatia, had a hand in Burnley’s first goal, teeing up Charlie Austin to half the deficit and salvaged an opening-day point when he scored a header six minutes from time.

“We would have taken that at 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go,” Treacy said on the Burnley website.

“We showed we have the character to fight from such a young team, which is what we are going to need, so there are positives there.

“I’m happy with my individual performance, getting off to a good start, although as the season progresses I think we’ll need to be beating teams like that to be challenging.”

It was a less happy day for another Irishman as Birmingham City began life in the Championship with a 2-1 defeat to Derby in Chris Hughton’s first game in charge.

First-half goals from Jason Shackell and Steven Davies secured victory for the Rams after Curtis Davies had put Hughton’s men in front with a header from a corner.

“I certainly felt we were unlucky not to pick up a result, but the great thing is that there are plenty of positives to build on going into the Coventry home game next weekend,’’ Hughton said.

“We deservedly went ahead and at that point were in control. However, we conceded two goals where we could have done much better and that changed the game.’’

Elsewhere on Saturday former Republic of Ireland striker David Connolly was on the scoresheet as Southampton beat Leeds United 3-1.

Republic of Ireland U21 international Sean Scannell was only on the scoresheet, albeit in a losing cause, as Crystal Palace lost 2-1 at Peterborough.

Reading played out a 2-2 draw at home to Millwall, Nottingham Forest drew 0-0 against Barnsley, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth finished 2-2, Leicester City won 1-0 at Coventry, Ipswich eased to a 3-0 win at Bristol City and Brighton defeated Doncaster 2-1.

Yesterday West Ham’s bid to secure an instant return to the Premier League got off to a disappointing start as a late Kenny Miller goal gave Cardiff City a 1-0 win at Upton Park.