Burnley 4-1 Sunderland: Gray puts sorry Mackems to the sword

Andre Gray scored his first Premier League hat-trick to move Burnley nine points clear of the relegation zone and heap more misery on David Moyes with a 4-1 win over Sunderland.

Gray broke the deadlock after 30 minutes at Turf Moor, making the most of some abysmal Sunderland defending and setting the tone for another dreadful day for Moyes.

He wrapped up his hat-trick with two goals in just under three second-half minutes before Ashley Barnes' 67th-minute penalty added to Sunderland's humiliation.

Jermain Defoe did restore some pride for Sunderland four minutes later, but his effort will provide little comfort for a team that lost Lamine Kone to injury 24 minutes in and saw Victor Anichebe sustain a hamstring problem.

Moyes, who went into Saturday's contest with an already stretched squad, will also have to cope without Billy Jones for the visit of Liverpool on Monday and was serenaded with chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning" from the Burnley fans.

Sunderland's travelling supporters took aim at club owner Ellis Short as their side slipped to a defeat that sees the Wearsiders remain two points adrift of fourth bottom Crystal Palace, who face Arsenal on Sunday.

Sunderland were fortunate not to fall behind when Barnes met Matthew Lowton's right-wing cross, only to turn it over at the far post.

Kone was forced off with an injury seemingly suffered when he collided with the advertising hoardings in an effort to stop Gray going through on goal.

The Ivory Coast international, who has been included in their squad for the Africa Cup of Nations, was replaced by Didier Ndong.

And seven minutes after Kone's withdrawal Sunderland's defence was breached.

John O'Shea and Papy Djilobodji both went to challenge Barnes for a long ball, which deflected off the former's head and into the path of Gray, who raced clear and fired under Vito Mannone.

Burnley's lead may have been doubled had Stephen Ward been able to make better contact with a dangerous Lowton delivery, and another chance went begging as Scott Arfield failed to test Mannone from the edge of the area.

A disheartening half ended in fitting fashion for Sunderland as Jones received a yellow card, which means a one-game suspension, and Anichebe pulled up hurt, forcing him to be replaced by Steven Pienaar prior to the start of the second 45 minutes.

Sunderland had offered little threat even before Anichebe's departure and their task was made all the harder when Gray doubled Burnley's lead.

Gray - assisted by more poor defending from Djilobodji - latched on to a seemingly innocuous long ball and took advantage of Mannone's inexplicable decision to race off his line to roll the ball into an empty net six minutes after the restart.

The game was then effectively put to bed two minutes later as he completed his treble by slotting in from Barnes' cushioned lay-off at the end of a well-worked attacking move.

Barnes then got his reward for an impressive showing from the spot after Sebastian Larsson felled Arfield in the area, with Adnan Januzaj's fine run and pass teeing up Defoe for a scant piece of consolation at the other end.