Price tag not weighing down record signing Gray

A number of Burnley’s Championship rivals have recently made reference to how much the Clarets paid to sign the 24-year-old from Brentford in August.

And though his £6m price tag is a lot less than the likes of Bolton’s Neil Lennon and Huddersfield Town’s Chris Powell presumed, following their sides’ defeats at Turf Moor, Gray revealed he is thriving from the attention.

Gray scored two goals against either side, as he has started life in East Lancashire with six goals in nine starts, and he said: “It makes me feel proud. Managers are going to say that, I’m sure if they could pay money for certain players, they would.

“If they don’t want to do that, they don’t want to do that – it’s their loss at the end of the day.

“Hopefully I’m trying to repay it for Burnley so that it can be their gain.”

And he is pleased with the start he has made at Burnley: “It’s going good.

“I missed two games since I signed and came off injured with one.

“I could have probably got more, but I can’t complain. It’s probably the best ratio I’ve had in my career so I’m not moaning.”

Gray thanked the club as a whole for helping him settle quickly: “The boys have welcome me, which has given me confidence.

“And the fans have welcomed me, which has given me even more confidence.

“As much as the price to buy me might have seemed a lot, that’s given me confidence as well.

“For the whole club to believe in me that much to pay that amount of money, it’s only helped me.”

Gray is enjoying his football in a side third in the table, on a run of eight wins in 11 games, and he added: “We’ve got a great understanding now.

“Joey (Barton)’s come in and I’ve come in and I think we know our roles now, and we know what’s best for each other, and I think you’re seeing that with mine and (Sam) Vokesy’s partnership now.

“We’ve got the run where I go in behind and he goes inside, and we’re working well together. I think Joey and Jonah (David Jones) have got that now as well.

“It’s all clicking together but there’s still a lot of work to do and I think we’re only going to get better.”

Fulham come to Burnley tonight looking to stall the Clarets’ momentum, but Gray hopes the side’s consistency will be important come the end of the season: “That’s all that matters. The table doesn’t mean anything at the minute, at all. I watched the Brentford game on Friday and I was looking at the table after - from the start they had and thinking they were in a relegation battle, to being five points off us it’s scary.

“It proves the table doesn’t mean anything at the minute. We just need to keep being consistent and grinding out wins.

“We’re not playing the best football, it’s not easy on the eye sometimes, but it’s coming together and I think the fans will have seen glimpses of what’s to come.

“I learnt a lot last season at Brentford. We played fantastic football, you’d have thought we were Premier League players.

“But it’s not always like that, and we didn’t get anything out of it in the end. We did well but we didn’t get over the hurdle and that was the difference with all the teams that went up. They had that cutting edge, they had that little bit extra when you needed it.

“It’s not always going to be pretty, teams are going to be hard to break down, but if you can not concede we’ve always got a chance of nicking a game.

“It’s not all about how we play, it’s about the results. It’s a results business.

“I think a lot of teams might have ended up with a draw on Saturday, but we’ve got that grit, we know how to keep a lead.”