GOAL hero Clarke Carlisle has revealed how he apologised to manager Steve Cotterill for his first-half defensive mistakes - and then made up for them with a stunning late equaliser.

The former Watford and Queens Park Rangers defender salvaged a point in stoppage time at Ashton Gate with an uncharacteristic overhead kick.

And while he was delighted to open his Clarets account in such a crucial way, he admitted that similar acrobatic repeats would be few and far between.

"I had a little peak in the top drawer!" he quipped.

"I don't know where it came from, it must be the boots. If you've got white boots on you have to do something special.

"I kind of surprised myself. Set-piece headers ... I'll take them all day but don't expect another one of those too soon."

And the 27-year-old explained how, before scoring, he avoided a potential half-time showdown with boss Cotterill.

"I don't think he was too impressed with how I, personally, started the game," he said.

"I think there were one or two errors of judgement that I made. I tried to head one back to the keeper, which was silly. The first few headers you should send them straight back in behind.

"The second one was when I was appealing for an offside as the first centre half, which you shouldn't do really. So I think he wanted to have a discussion.

"I was a bit vociferous on the pitch and I don't think he took kindly to that.

"It's putting out my own fires and there shouldn't be any fires to put out in the first place. So I thought I'd defuse the situation and just hold my hands up."

Although pleased with a point in the end, after substitute Darren Byfield scored two quickfire goals in the last 11 minutes for the Robins, Carlisle was disappointed that Burnley found themselves in a position where they needed to come from behind following Andy Gray's 53rd minute opener.

"We came under a lot of pressure in the second half and you kind of expect that away from home at clubs like Bristol City, who have an excellent home record, and you've got to expect to have your backs against the wall for some period in the game. But when that does happen you need to rally together and make sure you stay solid and come through the other side.

"I don't think we did that in the way we were wanting to do but we did do it in a way, per se, by coming out and actually getting a goal when we were 2-1 down.

"The lads rallied well in the last five minutes, but it's a position I don't think we should have been in.

"If you go in the dressing room the lads are really upset the we put ourselves in that position. It's almost like the result against Blackpool where you feel like you've lost.

"But at a place like this to then come from behind, in injury time, and get a point, it's an excellent result here in the grand scheme of things.

"But as you'll often hear in football, the way that the games have panned out it's probably not the best result for us, but I'm sure that the gaffer will say different.

"If you'd have offered us a point before the game we'd have probably have taken it."