STEVE Cotterill joked he may be turning into a clairvoyant after Andy Gray's quick-fire winner launched Burnley into third place.

The Clarets are the Championship's last remaining unbeaten side away from home following Saturday's 1-0 win at Stoke.

Gray's strike at the Britannia Stadium came on just 35 seconds, after which time Burnley were largely comfortable in holding on for three points.

Leading up to the game, Clarets boss Cotterill pointed out that Gray was due a goal for his recent hard work.

"I'm starting to be a bit of a clairvoyant," said Cotterill.

"Maybe I'm better at clairvoyancy than I am as a manager! I will have to have a little look at that.

"I said Andy might get some reward and that is what happened.

"Gifton (Noel-Williams) did nothing different to what he did in midweek and ending up with a hat-trick and nothing here.

"But to be fair to them, Gifton and Andy Gray are very good team players.

"They are not individualists, like perhaps Steve Jones and Wade Elliott who are individuals at playing within a team.

"They are very much team players. I thought against Duberry and Hill, who are a good central defensive partnership at this level and very, very tough to play against, our front two handled that encounter well."

Gray took his season's Championship account to three after latching on to Micah Hyde's low pass to give Burnley a dream early start.

Cotterill admits victory was well deserved, although he admits a second goal would have given his side extra breathing space.

He added: "It was always going to be hard-fought. We know when we come to Stoke and Tony (Pulis) has his teams very well organised and certainly difficult to beat.

"So we knew it was going to be a tough game anyway. Nothing really surprises us out of the 90minutes.

"Is there a time to score too early? I probably think not.

"Maybe the only disappointing aspect about the game was we've had a few other chances and we haven't been ruthless enough with those chances.

"But other than that, I thought it was a great away performance by us.

"Certainly late on, you know that you are going to come under quite a bombardment late on and we just felt we needed to stand up and be counted on."