It's our patch and we want to get through

Last updated : 07 January 2011 By Tony Scholes
Gray took over eight days ago following the departure of manager Brian Laws and was placed in charge for three games, the league fixtures against Sheffield United and this game against Port Vale.

He's won one and lost one so far and is now determined to ensure Burnley go through to the next round of the FA Cup and won't be making the sort of changes we made for the Carling Cup game at Morecambe.

"We want to win the game," Gray said. "We will respect Port Vale but the most important thing is to get to the next round. When I make changes I don't make changes to lose games. I make changes to win.

"A couple of changes at Reading were probably forced upon us in Jay and Chris Iwelumo regarding injuries and illness, but the pleasing thing is we have a clean bill of health. We have Danny Fox available for Saturday and we want to pick eleven who want to get through to the next round of the FA Cup.

"There's a good strength in depth there at the moment. We've got a good feisty eleven and a strong bench as well. We need to do a good, professional job and whichever player we put out there the onus is on them to put a performance in and get through to the next round."

Gray added: "They have a new manager and it's great to see Jim back in work. He will have them fired up but the most important thing is that we are fired up. It's our patch and we want to get through to the next round.

"It's a great competition and these players now have an opportunity to get through. They sampled Wembley in the play-off final. They know what it's like and hopefully they've got hunger for that again.

"One thing you do know is that one of the top four clubs are often in the final but what has been shown with Cardiff and Portsmouth in recent times has given hope to everyone else to get to the final."