WHEN Ricky Hatton stepped out of the ring in his fledgling boxing career it looked for all the world that he had been beaten.

It was a notorious fact that the two-time IBF and IBO light welterweight champion used to bleed on contact.

Yet no matter how many cuts and bruises he has sustained over the years, to this day he is unbeaten in 43 fights.

Seven years ago "The Hitman" saw a specialist to help toughen up his facial skin.

Burnley manager Steve Cotterill is planning some specialist exercises of his own to help the Clarets get stronger.

"We keep getting cut. We aren't getting knocked out.

"No-one's knocking us out, but we're getting cut and it's stopping us moving on," noted Cotterill after seeing his side take the lead against Barnsley through Andy Gray, only to be held to their fourth draw in six games courtesy of a second-half Barnsley revival.

"We've just got to be a little bit quicker to avoid those cuts and then we'll produce the knockouts.

"We're doing okay, but we know we can be better and that's what we'll be aiming to be."

Having dealt so well with Barnsley's set pieces it was all the more disappointing that it was from a corner that the Tykes eventually got back into the game, almost an hour after Gray had scored a fortuitous opener for his eighth goal of the campaign.

They all count. Barnsley, too, got lucky with their goal, as after Lewin Nyatanga hit the crossbar when he connected with Brian Howard's left-wing corner, Miguel Mostto was well-placed to head home his first of the season from the rebound.

It was a blow for a defence that had kept strikers Mostto and Kayode Odejayi at arm's length for most of the afternoon, while the front men and a strong and lively midfield had also grafted hard in closing down and defending high up the pitch.

And after the first half had belonged to Burnley, being unable to benefit from a string of chances and openings to add to Gray's goal only served to compound their frustration at missing out on a first clean sheet of the season.

But it says something about the solid start the Clarets have made to the season that the disappointment at earning a point at Oakwell was so great, given that Barnsley were unbeaten in six games before Saturday.

The Clarets might have gone in front as early as the seventh minute had Clarke Carlisle been able to keep a free header down from Alan Mahon's corner.

The central defender then had an impact at his business end of the pitch when he made a well-timed challenge on Odejayi. The former Cheltenham striker went down heavily, the Barnsley fans behind the goal appealed loudly for a penalty but referee Lee Probert did well not to be swayed by their demands, instead rightly observing that Carlisle had cleanly won the ball.

Within two minutes, Burnley had made an early breakthrough.

Andy Gray must have thought he would never be as fortunate as he was for his last goal in the 2-2 draw at home to Ipswich Town - when the ball cannoned off him as he went in for a a 50-50 ball with the goalkeeper Neil Alexander and dipped delightfully under the bar.

But luck has clearly remained with the Clarets leading scorer over the two-week break for internationals.

For when centre half Lewin Nyatanga tried to clear Wade Elliott's right wing cross from inside the six-yard box, the ball rebounded off Gray's chest and into the back of the net.

Elliott quickly tried to turn from provider to scorer but his right foot 25-yard drive whistled narrowly past the left hand post with goalkeeper Heinz Muller rooted to the spot.

Stephen Jordan then had a let-off as he left Martin Devaney with too much space to roam down the right, but his end product swerved wide. The winger then hooked the ball over the bar after Carlisle cut out Dominik Werling's left-wing cross.

Burnley put the pressure back on just before the half-hour and another chance fell to Elliott, who chipped the ball over the angle following good work by Chris McCann, Jordan and Gray in the build-up.

Commanding goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly then felt the force of a collision with Stephen Foster as he landed awkwardly claiming a high ball into the box and twisted to avoid landing on his former team-mate.

Foster was also making his presence felt with Gray, as whenever the Clarets striker got the ball, the former Burnley defender wasn't far away, preventing Gray from turning to have a run at goal. But trying to stop Gray didn't stop Burnley, as the striker's control and vision brought others into play, while John Spicer and McCann were also orchestrating proceedings from midfield, notably when McCann tricked his way into the box after combining well with Mahon and cut the ball back to win a corner from which Gray was thwarted on the line. Then, from a Mahon free kick, Gray's header was tipped around the post by the diving 6ft 6in Muller, who later had his hands stung by McCann's 30-yard drive, after Werling had rifled the ball straight at Kiraly.

The Clarets stopper then did well to keep out a dubiously awarded Howard free kick.

The end-to-end action continued to the break. Carlisle went close with another header, and in reply the defender did well to get in the way of a well struck Werling free kick from inches outside the box.

Resilient Barnsley started the second half strongly and Devaney, who had switched wings with Campbell-Ryce, had shot blocked. Howard couldn't keep the follow-up down.

Mostto brought a good save from Kiraly after the Peru international worked an opening for himself, and Carlisle was brave to cut out Campbell-Ryce's burst at goal. It allowed Burnley to break, but the target was still eluding Elliott, while Foster blocked a Mahon volley after the Dubliner had fired over from distance just before being replaced by Kyle Lafferty.

Unfortunately for the Northern Ireland international, the action shifted to the wrong end, and he couldn't meet Howard's inswinger before Nyatanga did. The Welshman's header came back off the crossbar and Mostto was the first to react to slot it home.

Burnley were deflated, but continued to create with Elliott and Lafferty going close, while McCann was twice denied by Muller.

Gray and Caldwell were thwarted in a final flurry, and from the goalmouth melee Carlisle hammered the ball down the middle of the goal.

But referee Probert had spotted an infringement and ruled out what surely would have been a last-minute knockout dished out by Burnley.