Burnley aren't used to creating all this carnage in the cups, but for their mischievous manager, Owen Coyle, it's nothing new. Find a scalp or two by the wayside, and it's a fair bet the wiry Scot has been thereabouts.

On Tuesday night, he will be at it again, throwing his team into a Carling Cup quarter-final with all the bravado that has made knockout competition his speciality. As a whippet-like striker, he helped the Beastie Boys of Airdrie to the 1992 Scottish Cup final, and scored vital FA Cup goals for Bolton at Goodison and Highbury. As a manager, he quickly recreated the magic, inspiring First Division St Johnstone to outplay all manner of SPL sides on their way to a pair of semi-final appearances.

Now, having outwitted Roy Hodgson and Luiz Felipe Scolari, he is gunning for Arsene Wenger and the kids he lets loose on nights like these. "You call them kids, but each one of them probably has a value of five or six million," says Coyle. "There is no doubt how difficult it's going to be. We will be underdogs, but we've already eliminated Fulham and Chelsea. We'll give it our best shot. I just think it's fantastic that we're even talking about Burnley in the same breath as Arsenal in the last eight of a major competition."

Coyle knows all about beating the odds. He was, after all, brought up in the Gorbals, slapped about by his five elder brothers, and by his own admission, possessed of a pipe-cleaner frame that had no right to be mixing it with professional footballers. He has spent a lifetime making up for modest resources, which perhaps explains his emergence as one of the game's brightest young managers. "Anything I've ever achieved in life, I've earned," he says. "Nothing has been handed to me. I've had to go and work hard for it. I'm a great believer that the harder you work, the more likely you are to be rewarded. And if you're not, the important thing is to pick yourself up and show your character. Mentally, I'm very strong."

The 42-year-old has had his share of setbacks, most agonisingly in 2007, when the league title was wrenched from St Johnstone's grasp in the final minute of the final match. He and his players were in the dressing-room at Hamilton, poised to celebrate their recovery from a 15-point deficit in January, when a radio in the corner reported Gretna's injury-time goal against Ross County. "In the rest of my career, I don't think I'll get a bigger kick in the teeth than we got that day," says Coyle, who had the challenge of his life, quite literally picking his players up from the floor, thanking each for his effort, and heading out to console 4,000 disbelieving supporters.

The way he then conducted himself with the media won him widespread respect, not least from Brooks Mileson, Gretna's owner, who quickly called him to say as much. "He said he couldn't believe how dignified I was, but that's what you have to do. As a player, you look after yourself. As a manager, you are responsible for a whole football club, a whole town. You have to step back from the personal thing, and realise that you're looking after everybody. What happened that day ... I wouldn't wish it on anyone. But you can't let the players see you are despondent. I was the face of St Johnstone. I had to rise above it."

It is the creed by which Coyle lives his life. He is the eternal optimist, a bubbly, fast-talking enthusiast with a positive spin for everything. He describes himself as a "people person", a sociable soul who cannot bear to be in a room alone. At Burnley, he has assembled a small, close-knit squad, and fostered the same family atmosphere that worked with St Johnstone. He has never been one to tolerate miserable players who take their career for granted, and he isn't about to start in the downtrodden surroundings of Turf Moor, where the credit crunch has long been a way of life.

"I bring a passion to the job, and I hope it rubs off on my players. I want them to care about the team and the club. As a manager, you are trying to give everyone a lift, not just the team. This isn't a wealthy town, but people here are Burnley through and through. There are some who can't afford to come to the matches, some who are ill or out of a job, but it's still their team. They still care. We should be achieving things, giving them something to talk about."

In an era when success is too often manufactured, Burnley are an old-fashioned club who live within their means. They are founder members of the Football League, former winners of all four divisions, and still playing in the stadium they first occupied in 1883. Their support is far from the biggest in the Championship, but it averages nearly 20 per cent of the town's 70,000 population, and tends not to fluctuate with the team's fortunes. Even now, as they flirt with the play-offs, the £12m parachute payment received by six of their biggest rivals has nurtured in them a healthy sense of realism.

When Coyle joined them from St Johnstone just over a year ago, he knew immediately that he had done the right thing. "Whenever you walk through the doors at Turf Moor, you can tell it's what I call a proper football club. It just feels right. There is a real sense of history and tradition about the place, which I've tried to embrace. We have a couple of big, new stands, but there are still some old seats in the main one, and when we are close to filling the place, it feels like a genuine, footballing environment. When we play Arsenal, the atmosphere will be brilliant."

Coyle, for his part, has maintained the club's tradition of wingers. Chris Eagles and Wade Elliott, the team's current widemen, are not in the same class as Willie Morgan, the Scot who lit up Burnley in the 1960s, but they reflect the manager's principles. Last season, when Wenger was looking for a club to whom he could loan his promising midfielder, Mark Randall, he chose Burnley on the back of their performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup. Although Coyle's side lost 2-0 at Turf Moor, Wenger liked their style.

Randall is likely to be back in town on Tuesday, facing a side that has been overhauled since his return to Arsenal in the summer. That was when Coyle made his mark, selling Kyle Lafferty to Rangers for £3.5m, and Andy Gray to Charlton Athletic for £1.5m, before spending less than half of that in return. Eagles arrived from Manchester United, striker Martin Paterson from Scunthorpe United, and midfielder Kevin McDonald from Dundee, all of them hungry young players whose value should appreciate.

There is also experience, much of it Scottish. Steven Thompson, ineligible for the Arsenal game, is a frequent target man, captain Steven Caldwell is playing so well that Coyle cannot understand his omission from the Scotland squad, and Graham Alexander is the manager's favourite, still going strong at the age of 37. "Since I came in, he has played every game, and been a godsend," says Coyle. "He is a top, top footballer, no doubt about it. I just love everything about him. People talk about his age, but he doesn't miss a day's training. Some players get better as they get older."

Coyle should know. He was still turning out for St Johnstone at 40. Maybe he inherited longevity from his mother, Frances, who continues to work in the Citizens Theatre at 77, and still travels down to watch Burnley at every opportunity. Her son was the hyperactive kid who couldn't sit down, the paper boy who ran up 23 flights of stairs rather than take the lift in Glasgow's multi-storeys. It is why there is still not an ounce of fat on his bones, despite a continued diet of Irn-Bru, biscuits and fish suppers on a Friday.

He doesn't drink alcohol, though. When he was a young player at Dumbarton, he was invited to represent Celtic at an under-20 tournament in Switzerland, where Derek Whyte, Anton Rogan and Alex Mathie were among his team-mates. One night, when the squad were allowed out, Whyte bought a round of drinks, only to find Coyle point-blank refusing it. "Many a young player, away with Celtic, would have been easily influenced, but even at that age, I was quite single-minded, quite secure in my opinions."

Coyle has the courage of his convictions. When St Johnstone defender Kevin Rutkiewicz kicked up a fuss about his omission from a match against Hamilton, Coyle revealed to him the kind of thinking that distinguishes some of the great managers. "I said to him, 'you know what, it's not a right decision, and it's not a wrong decision. It's just the decision, that's all'. There will be times when I make wrong decisions, but I don't have any problem making them, and that's what's important."

Not that he makes a habit of falling out with players. He is too popular for that, too much fun to be around. Burnley is full of happy people these days, from the demented fan who has attracted 19,000 hits on You Tube to the striker, Robbie Blake, whose celebratory party trick is to reveal a pair of red pants with "Bad Beat Bob" written on them. It is, apparently, a poker phrase used to describe players who squander a good hand. Coyle tends to make the most of his.

COYLE THE CUP SPECIALIST

AIRDRIEONIANS

The young Owen Coyle's goals helped propel Airdrie to the 1992 Scottish Cup final where they lost 2-1 to Rangers, but enjoyed the consolation prize of qualifying for Europe. Hibs and Hearts were eliminated en route. Coyle also helped Airdrie reach the semi-finals of the League Cup in the same season, knocking out Celtic, Aberdeen and Hibs before losing on penalties to Dunfermline.

BOLTON WANDERERS

Coyle's goals for Airdrie earned him a £250,000 move to England and his reputation as a cup specialist grew with vital FA Cup goals against Everton at Goodison and Arsenal at Highbury.

ST JOHNSTONE

Coyle moved into management in April 2005 when he took over at St Johnstone. He led the Perth side to a 2-0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox to reach the semi-finals of the League Cup in November 2006. It was their first win at Ibrox in 35 years. In the same season he took Saints to the Scottish Cup semi-finals where they were unlucky to lose 2-1 to Celtic.

BURNLEY

Coyle moved south to Burnley and the cup exploits continued this season as he guided the Turf Moor side to the quarter-finals of the Worthington Cup with victories over Fulham and Chelsea. Arsenal are up next, on Tuesday.