Andre Gray will be given chances in the coming weeks to earn his place in the Watford match-day squad.

The former Burnley man has struggled to nail down a starting place this season, but head coach Nigel Pearson believes he is a player who will prove to be useful in the Hornets' quest for Premier League survival.

With the club in the middle of a congested schedule, the head coach said Gray is likely to get his chance to prove his worth sooner rather than later.

"He's got pace and he can stretch teams and he will be important for us to be able to bring to the team what are clearly his strengths," said the head coach. 

"At the moment, in my time here his opportunities have been limited, but as I've said, the games programme now is so congested that it goes without saying that it tests a squad of players' belief in what is the squad ethic. It's alright saying, 'yeah we've got a strong squad ethic', but what it really tests is when a player is given an opportunity, they go out there and take it and for me he's a player that I know will bring some different qualities to us because he's got more pace to run the channels.

"I actually spoke via message with Joey Barton the other day and he was telling me that he's a good lad and he'll do well for us, so I know he's a different type of player for us and his opportunity will come and what he's got to be like everyone else who's currently on the edge of the team, or on the cusp of getting a chance is they've got to be able to take their chance when they get it and really that's the squad ethic that we have to live by."

With the Hornets climbing off the bottom of the table after their draw with Sheffield United, the new head coach's impact is starting to be seen. However Pearson said he does not want his players to start getting carried away, with a long way still left to go this season.

"I really am very single-minded in terms of just looking, every time that we play, at our own fixtures," he said. 

"For me, it's not about how we extrapolate how the season's going to go from here on in, we've just got to make sure that we do enough in every game that we play to try and make some progress. If we climb, fine, but we'll still have setbacks from here on in, so I don't want the players to start getting involved in a feeling of progression and then a setback, I want them just to look at performances of a standard that we're happy with and that we are accountable for."