FORMER Clarets striker Andy Gray has told Burnley not to worry about their away form, but doesn’t plan on offering any Christmas cheer this weekend.

Brian Laws’ men go to Barnsley on Boxing Day looking for their first Championship away win of the season.

The Tykes themselves had to wait until November to break their duck.

Gray is confident Burnley will, too, beat their travel sickness soon.

But he aims to avoid that happening before the turn of the year.

The 33-year-old is battling to get back in the Barnsley side, after not featuring since that first away win at Preston almost two months ago.

He was on the bench when they went on to win at Ipswich Town just four days later.

However, it is that sequence of results, which kick-started a five-game unbeaten run before Christmas, that he feels can inspire the Clarets – but only after Boxing Day.

“The players don’t make as much of it as the fans or the press. Maybe it’s in your subconscious but to us it’s just another game that you want to go out and win,” he said.

“Burnley will win games away from home this season, we just don’t want that first to be Sunday.

“But after that I wish them well because they have too many good players not to do well this season.”

The omens aren’t good for Oakwell though, as the Clarets haven’t won there in 14 league and cup attempts since April 1932.

A change in fortunes would be well-timed after dropping to 12th after last week’s postponement at Cardiff. Although Gray has urged them not to read too much into statistics or the table.

“The league’s so tight there’s not a lot between any team, and Burnley are still well-placed,” he said.

“With a good run of results anybody can be in touching distance of the top two.”

And Gray, who quit the Clarets for Charlton soon after Owen Coyle took charge in the 2007/08 season, believes homegrown talent Jay Rodriguez is key to them achieving their goal.

The Burnley-born striker was in the first year of his professional contract when Gray left, but the pair were reunited at Barnsley when he was sent out on loan during the Clarets’ Premier League season, scoring on his debut – against Preston – thanks to an assist from his old Turf Moor team-mate.

“It was more or less his first touch,” recalled Harrogate-born Gray.

“He is a good player, he always has been.

“When I left Burnley he was on the fringes of the first team and he’s really come on in the last couple of years.

“He reminds me a little bit of Alan Smith at Leeds.

“He works really hard and puts himself about as a striker.

“He maybe doesn’t score as many goals as he should do but some strikers don’t.

“They bring so much to the team they don’t necessarily need to because they are invaluable in other ways.

“It’s no surprise to me that he’s gone on to fulfil his potential and become a good player.”

On a personal note, Gray is hoping for the chance to face his former club after a spell out of the starting 11.

“I’m not playing as regularly as I would like at the moment, but we’ve got good staff and good players and we’re on a good run at the moment,” he said.

“It’s been a bit frustrating because we’ve had a couple of games called off with the weather.

“We’ve been training hard so it’s not really affected us much, although there’s no substitute for playing.

“I hope I’m back on Sunday.

“You look forward to every game, but I’ve not been involved for a few weeks, and it’s always nice playing against your old clubs.”