CHRIS McCann made a goalscoring return to action and thanked his manager and team-mates for helping him out of his injury hell.

After being sidelined for 15 months following a succession of knee injuries, which culminated in him needing reconstructive knee ligament surgery, the midfielder admitted he was shocked to make an instant return to the starting line-up after beginning his comeback through the reserves.

But after midfielder Dean Marney was ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Derby County with a medial knee ligament problem, manager Eddie Howe called on McCann to fill the void.

And the 23-year-old capped a long-awaited return by completing a 4-2 win over the Rams to throw the Clarets to the cusp of the play-off positions with three games to go, starting with this afternoon’s visit of Portsmouth and his first Burnley boss, Steve Cotterill.

“Hopefully we’ll get one over on them and push us on a little bit more,” said McCann, who after playing only 100 minutes in 18 months described his first game back as “unbelievable”.

The Dubliner, whose last senior goal came at Derby County in the April of Burnley’s promotion winning campaign in 2009, added: “I’m a bit speechless to be honest, and when I scored I didn’t know what to do.

“It’s been that long since I scored the last time, I was just happy.”

And as McCann completed a second half fightback against 10-man Derby to secure a 4-2 win with his shot in-off the post, the rest of his team-mates shared in his joy as all 10 of them raced to hug the popular midfield man.

“It meant a lot to me to see the boys coming over to me and celebrating like that,” he said.

“It just shows the faith they have in me and what a good bunch of lads they are and how happy they are for me.

“I have to say thanks to them for being there for me.

“That just shows the teams spirit we have is second to none.

“It’s a good day’s work.

“Hopefully I’ve done myself a little bit of justice coming back in and doing all right for myself and shown the gaffer what I’m all about and it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

Now he wants to reward their backing and the faith they showed in him on his long road to recovery by playing his part in securing another trip to Wembley in the play-offs.

“I’d love to go back there and play again,” he said.

“I came off injured the last time but to get back there would be a dream come true.

“We’re just going about our business. We know what we can do and what we’re capable of.

“If we play like we played in the second half (at Derby) we’ll cause any team problems.”

He added: “We’re level on points with everybody so it’s ours to lose.

“Without overlooking Portsmouth we’ve got two big games coming up against Leeds and Cardiff.

“Hopefully we can get the three points (today), but Leeds and Cardiff are massive games.

“They’re big, big teams that are going to be in and around us pushing for that spot.

“If we play like we played in the second half nobody will touch us.”