ARE you watching Stuart Pearce?

If Jay Rodriguez wasn’t in the England Under 21 chief’s uppermost thoughts ahead of upcoming games against Denmark and Iceland he should be now.

A touch of class gave Burnley hope of reducing the gap on the play-offs to a point as his 11th goal of the season gave them a 1-0 lead at the break.

But the Clarets were in danger of walking away from the first of two games in hand with nothing after Lukas Jutkiewicz cancelled out Rodriguez’s outstanding 18th minute opener just after the hour, then Gary McSheffrey scored a stunner to give Coventry the lead with 15 minutes to go.

But after initiating the opener, Rodriguez was in the right place at the right time to head in an important equaliser five minutes later, in-off Aron Gunnarson.

Pearce has left the young striker on standby for international duty next week, despite an impressive debut against Italy.

Quite how his hometown club would have managed without him last night, though, is anyone’s guess.

Just as it looked as though the cobwebs of a disappointing home defeat to Millwall had been brushed off through the 21-year-old’s stunning finish, the nerves set in.

A defence which had so consummately dealt with pressure from Crystal Palace and Hull City to preserve successive clean sheets has crumbled under the weight of it against the Lions and Coventry.

Only one point has been earned from two home games, in which five goals have been conceded and led to calls from the crowd to restore Andre Bikey back to the line-up.

It took a moment of breath-taking brilliance from Rodriguez to put Burnley ahead.

The newly-capped striker calmly flicked the ball over Richard Keogh’s head and mercilessly punished Keiren Westwood for encroaching off his line to score his fourth goal in five games.

What made a sublime finish over the keeper all the more impressive, though, was how he appeared to have thought it all through seconds beforehand.

But in the second-half, Coventry hit back. When Jutkiewicz broke their resistance though, there were flashbacks to Saturday as he was allowed not one, but two, free headers.

He hit the crossbar with the first, from Eastwood’s cross, but he was the first to react to the rebound, which he duly converted.

McSheffrey went on to rival Rodriguez for goal of the game when he evaded three token challenges before chipping Grant.

But Rodriguez had the last word, powerfully heading Danny Fox’s corner.