MANCHESTER City boss Joe Royle gave Terry Cooke the benefit of the doubt over whether his Worthington Cup winner against Burnley last night was intentional.

Cooke completed a 6-0 first-round aggregate win for the First Division club with the only goal of the return leg at a sparsely populated Turf Moor.

Burnley manager Stan Ternent believed the winger's first-time cross-shot mid-way through the second half was not a deliberate strike.

But Royle revealed: "He said he meant it. Players aren't always truthful when that happens but I believe him. It was a good goal."

And Royle, who gave a 20-minute debut to Ian Wright's son Shaun Wright-Phillips, felt that City had done enough to warrant the result, even though they were given a much sterner test than in the first leg at Maine Road a fortnight ago.

He added: "It was a strange game for us really. It's hard, no matter what you say to players, to motivate them when they're 5-0 up.

"But I thought we did enough. We were always comfortable and probably just about deserved to win.

"That's four clean sheets in five games now and we looked very solid."

Like City, Burnley showed a number of changes to the side that maintained their decent start to the League programme at Oldham at the weekend.

And captain Gordon Armstrong believes last night's result won't knock the Clarets off course with a Bank Holiday weekend double-header to come against Stoke and Bristol Rovers.

"I didn't think we did too badly. It was a tough game because they are a tough side. It was disappointing to lose but it's not the end of the world," he said.

"We are going well. It's another massive game on Saturday and then a big one on Monday as well, so we are looking forward to both of them."

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