ANDRE Gray said his first Premier League hat-trick just three years after he was plying his trade in non-league football showed that anything is possible.

The 25-year-old admitted he could never have dreamt of bagging a top flight treble when he was scoring goals for Luton Town in the Conference in the 2013/14 season.

But his hat-trick against Sunderland saw him become the first Burnley player to achieve the feat at that level since Peter Noble in 1975 and it took his tally for the season to five.

“It's a surreal feeling," said last season's Championship top scorer.

"It was three years ago now I was playing non-league so it was a massive, massive moment for me personally. I never would have dreamed of it.

"It just proves anything's possible. It's crazy how things have changed for me. It's massive for me and there's a long way to go."

It capped a memorable week for both Burnley and Gray. The former Brentford man was the match-winner against Middlesbrough on Boxing Day to end a 10 game goal drought and his strikes have helped the Clarets open up a nine-point gap on the bottom three.

“That's why I never get down on myself when I'm not scoring because it can quickly change," said Gray.

"Not scoring in 10 games or so to scoring four in two, it's just how strikers work and I've just got to keep working hard."

Gray's historic treble capped a memorable year for player and club.

While his four-game ban for historic social media posts left him playing catch up, he believes he is now back to his best and ready to terrorise more top flight defences.

“Personally I couldn't have asked for much more (from 2016)," he said.

"Obviously we got promoted, I managed to be top scorer in the Championship, I got player of the year. It just topped it off today with a hat-trick."

Of his ban, Gray added: “It's weird because it's six weeks and that's a pre-season. It was obviously a difficult time just not playing and trying to stay fit.

"Obviously the boys were flying as well as I came back so to get back in the team was difficult. I had to keep my head down, keep working hard and hopefully my chance would come and it came again.

"You can do all the running you want throughout that time but it doesn't compete with match sharpness. It was hard to get back up to speed. I feel like I'm back at it now and hopefully we'll kick on now."

Gray's red letter day helped Burnley climb to 11th in the Premier League table and the hat-trick hero said the Clarets were looking up rather than down, and they're just four points behind Everton in seventh.

“We always look up. If you aim low you're going to shoot low," he said. "We can aim as high as we possibly can and keep climbing. Anything's possible.

"If you look at the table we can beat anyone outside the top six. Obviously we can still get points off the top six on our day. We've got to set our sights high and hopefully we can get there.

"We're only halfway there now. There's a long way to go, if we can replicate what we've done in the first half then hopefully we'll be fine."