Burnley 4-0 Bristol City: Sean Dyche reveals hard talk for Andre Gray reaped rewards
Monday 28 December 2015 21:15, UK
Burnley manager Sean Dyche revealed some harsh words helped fire Andre Gray up as the striker scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory over Bristol City at Turf Moor.
Dyche was looking for a reaction from his side following their 3-0 Boxing Day defeat at fellow promotion hopefuls Hull.
That game saw Gray substituted after 69 minutes but this time around there was no stopping the frontman as he took his tally of Burnley goals to 13 with a treble.
He struck twice in the first half and completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes left after Scott Arfield had added the third goal, with Dyche a far happier man heading into 2016.
"It's a tough division, we know that," Dyche said. "But the fact is we've come a long way this year and to finish on that performance with that result is a good marker for this club in the bigger picture.
"Andre Gray was fantastic. He gave a real reaction because I thought he was below par the other day and he knew that.
"We had a little chat about it. We want him to play with freedom and do what he did. But Sam Vokes was also outstanding. He did all the stuff the supporters perhaps might not notice. It was a very good team performance.
"We smashed a few quid out on Andre - it looks very cheap now by the way. The main thing is he's still learning - he's come so fast out of non-league football that he's almost self-taught.
"The secret for me is to not over-coach it. His rawness and his smelling of a chance to score, you don't want to coach that out of him. He's going along very well and I'm enjoying how he's growing as a person and a player."
As for Steve Cotterill, it was an unhappy outing at Burnley, the club he managed from 2004 to 2007.
And the Bristol City manager - who's side will ring in the new year in the relegation zone on goal difference - is urging the rest of his team to start chipping in with goals to take the pressure off his strikers.
"I don't think it made a difference mentally conceding late [and therefore only drawing] just two days ago but our team isn't full of goals," said Cotterill.
"We're relying on our strikers. We haven't got our quota from our wing-backs. We haven't got our quota from Aden Flint from set plays and we haven't got our quota from Luke Freeman.
"What's happening now is we need more chances to score a goal. It's hard trying to create chances game after game after game and not take them.
"I think we played equally good football to Burnley, and if not then at least in the second half their third goal was against the run of play.
"If you put any one of our lads into Burnley's team, then they wouldn't have looked out of place. If we could have had one, two or three of Burnley's players then I think we'd have won the game - that's the difference."
