Clarets will fight to keep top spot says Gray

The victory against Fulham at Craven Cottage saw the league leaders’ extend their lead over second place Middlesbrough to four points after Aitor Karanka’s side, who have a game in hand, slipped up against Rotherham United at the New York Stadium.

“We’re more determined than ever,” he said. “We know what we’ve got to do, we need to grind them out and try not to lose any games.

“They’re all massive now and 10 games is a lot, especially with the international break coming up. We can’t take our foot off the gas.”

The £6m man scored his 22nd goal of the campaign with a scintilating strike that arrowed beyond Andy Lonergan to make it 3-2 on the hour midweek.

Gray confessed that pent up frustration played a key role in his fizzing finish, following a below par first half display, but he was happy to provide the fuel to keep the promotion train on track.

“There was a lot of frustration behind it,” he said. “We weren’t at our best but we’ve done it again. We didn’t have the best of first half, me personally as well.

“I felt I wasn’t really in the game. We know as a team we’re a lot better than that, we were getting frustrated with each other and showing them too much respect.

“We came out fighting second half. For me personally there was a lot of built up frustration in that strike.”

Gray added: “I just want to keep scoring, I just want to score goals and get us promoted.

“But we need to get promoted, that’s all that matters. I’d rather score five goals and we get promoted than score 22 and we don’t.”

Meanwhile, Gray feels the Clarets have the mental strength to see their charge through now with just 10 games remaining.

“It looks good,” he said. “It’s all about us and that’s how it will stay until the end of the season. We’ll get our heads down, forget what’s going on around us, and focus on what’s going on on the pitch.

“We’re a tight group, we’re very humble and the gaffer is the same. We’ve got the perfect manager for it and hopefully we can stay in there now and keep that spot.”