CLARETS boss Steve Cotterill reckons good strikers are like "gold dust" as he laments the loss of his top marksman Andy Gray.

Gray is expected to be out until February after breaking three metatarsals in his right foot against Leeds at the end of November.

And since the Scottish international has been ruled out, the Clarets have failed to win any of their last five matches, picking up just three points from a possible 15 - and scoring just three goals in the process - and that's seen them slide down to 10th in the Championship.

And news that Gray could be out until February will hardly have done anything to improve the Burnley boss's mood.

Cotterill said: "I think the league table is very much of a muchness. It's just that little bit of goal difference. Where ours was good earlier in the season, now we've dropped off it a bit.

"And it's no coincidence when you haven't got your strikers.

"The hardest thing in this game is to win when you haven't got strikers. You only had to see that last year when Ade (Akinbiyi) went.

"It's hard to find strikers these days, they are absolutely like gold dust and that's why people pay over-inflated prices for them, because that's what you have to do now.

"There's a lack of what I would call good players out there that are available and who you can get.

"It's very difficult and if you do have any money, the chances are you have to spend more than you would under normal circumstances."

But Cotterill refused to be downbeat about his team's recent dip in form as the Clarets are only seven points away from Preston in second.

He added: "We are doing all right but nobody wants to say we are doing all right because everybody has seen us higher in the table.

"That's something that we are trying hard as a group to do - to get where we were earlier in the season.

"We are 25 games down the line and we've used very few players. We are trying to do that in every game and if we fall down or get beat, it's very rarely out of a lack of honesty.

"People can have a bad game, but that does not mean they are not honest.

"But if we are falling down at the moment, it's because we are not sticking the ball in the back of the net.

"So that final bit for us is a problem. When we are on top in games, we have got to score.

"Then when we stay on top, we will score more."