ANDRE Gray insists Burnley will show their strength of character as they look to bounce back from a defeat to Arsenal that the Clarets top scorer described as ‘sickening’.

When Gray slammed a 93rd minute penalty down the middle for his seventh goal of the season Burnley looked set for a second point away from home this season.

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But Arsenal were gifted the chance to snatch a 98th minute winner when they were awarded a penalty, despite Laurent Koscielny being in an offside position, and Alexis Sanchez made no mistake from the spot.

“It is sickening. The boys were really down in the dressing room,” said Gray.

“I think everyone has watched it on TV and will understand.

“I thought we definitely deserved a point and when they went to 10 we might have been able to nick it. But a big decision has gone against us and we’ve come away with nothing.”

It was the second time this season that Burnley had seen a point against Arsenal slip through their grasp thanks to controversial officiating.

But under Sean Dyche they’ve proved their strength of character on numerous occasions and Gray has backed them to do so again.

Burnley now have two successive Turf Moor fixtures to bounce back with, against Bristol City in the FA Cup fourth round and Leicester City in the Premier League.

“That’s what we’re best at,” Gray said of the Clarets’ mental strength.

“We don’t rest on our laurels and we’ll be back in, we’ll dust ourselves down and get on with it.

“Come midweek it will all be gone. We can’t do anything about it, it’s how we react to it. We’ve got another game at the weekend and Leicester on the Tuesday so we can put it right then.

“Every team in the league is going to get a decision against them and there’s been a lot of pressure on the refs lately so we’ve just got to get on with it.”

Although Burnley still have just one point on the road this season it was another improved away display and they have now suffered successive 2-1 defeats to title challengers Tottenham, Manchester City and Arsenal.

“A little bit of luck now and things will start falling our way,” Gray said of that away record. “We need to keep doing the right things and not take our foot off the gas, we need to put it on the gas a bit more.

“There’s still a long way to go, but not many teams are going to come here and give Arsenal a game like we did so we have to take the positives.”

It was a bitter-sweet day for Gray, who looked to have secured a point for Burnley with a goal against the club he supported as a boy.

The 25-year-old said of his late strike: “It was a great feeling. I had a few other chances, we created a few but the final ball wasn’t the best.

“I didn’t even think about (the penalty). It was last minute so I had to keep my head and not think about what was going on around me and all the fans. I made my mind up early to go down the middle.

“I wanted to take it straight away. It’s a big penalty in the last minute.”