STEVE Cotterill openly admits that Burnley miss Andy Gray following their Boxing Day defeat at Barnsley.

Tykes midfielder Martin Devaney pounced to score the only goal in an absorbing Battle of the Roses clash at Oakwell.

The Clarets were left to pay for a host of missed chances, with Gifton Noel-Williams, Steve Jones and Kyle Lafferty among those spurning good opportunities.

It left Burnley boss Cotterill to reflect on what could have been had Gray, injured until February with three broken metatarsals to his right foot, been out on the pitch.

"For the first time, I've actually opened up and said we miss Andy Gray," said Cotterill.

"I don't want to say that, but it's obvious. It's a big void for anybody at our club to fill.

"If you lose your main striker, it's a problem. As well as Gifton and Kyle are doing, Andy is a blow to us.

"We've known that for a while and we have to come out fighting because we haven't got him and we are not going to have him for a while yet."

Cotterill added: "After Andy got injured, I spoke to them to make sure we didn't have another scenario where we bit the dust because we had our top goalscorer missing.

"If you look at the games we've had and the possession we've had, going back to Ipswich, Coventry, Sunderland, Derby and here, Andy Gray scores at least two goals.

"That probably gives you another three points here and three points somewhere else.

"Andy is not going to be available for Hull City, Stoke and the FA Cup, so it's an issue we have to try and get on with."

While Burnley created plenty of chances, goalkeeper Brian Jensen was in fine form producing a string of fine saves.

But despite that, Cotterill insists the Clarets deserved to pick up more from Yorkshire.

He added: "We've dominated that game, absolutely dominated it.

"I can't believe we are coming away from here with nothing, even after a sloppy first-half performance.

"They've had a few chances, breakaways over the top in the first-half.

"Brian has made a couple of important saves from us and we won't take that away from them.

"The goal we gave away was so sloppy. I was majorly disappointed with that.

"But we've had two or three cleared off the line and I was told that one of their lads may have handballed.

"There's no luck running for us at the moment. We've not deserved to walk away from there with nothing.

"The lads will come back to it and to getting back decent results and finish the season as strongly as we started it."