The young Tottenham midfielder impressed in Paris against the Champions League winners in the eight-goal thriller on Wednesday night
Archie Gray has labelled the travelling Tottenham fans as "unbelievable" after the team put them through the wringer again with Wednesday night's 5-3 defeat at PSG.
Gray was handed a start in the midfield alongside fellow 19-year-old Lucas Bergvall at the Parc des Princes as Thomas Frank rang the changes following the north London derby defeat on Sunday. The two teenagers shone as Spurs twice took the lead against the Champions League holders through Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani, only for a Vitinha hat-trick, alongside further goals from Fabian Ruiz and Willian Pacho, to break Tottenham hearts around a second strike for Kolo Muani.
After the game the Tottenham supporters who had travelled to Paris gave the players a warm ovation despite the defeat after seeing far more fight and endeavour from the team than they had at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
"I mean the fans were unbelievable. They have stuck with us through a lot of hard times and we can't thank them enough for the support they give us, especially after a few tough games" said Gray. "Hopefully there were a few positives tonight that we can give them. Obviously it's not good enough these losses at a club like Tottenham, but we're going to look to improve that."
Gray and Bergvall combined for Spurs' excellent opening goal with the Swede playing a back heel into his team-mate's run and the former Leeds man chipped a cross to the back post where Kolo Muani headed the ball back across for Richarlison to nod home. Gray admits his bond with Bergvall away from the game helps with their connection on the turf.
"Me and Lucas are really close. Every time we're on the pitch together, we just trust each other 100 per cent," said the teen. "Even if there is pressure on us, we know we can play to each other and we can handle that pressure. We're really close on the pitch and off the pitch as well."
Gray was making his first appearance in over a month, since returning from a calf injury but he fitted into the team seamlessly in an energetic box-to-box role in the midfield during a busy 76-minute display.
"I mean the pressure is just man-to-man. Find your man and stay with them," he said on his role. "Obviously just trying to find the spaces where the midfielders don't want to track you and finding the half spaces like with the cross. Yeah, it was enjoyable."
While disappointed by the scoreline, Gray believes there was enough to take from the game against the European champions to kick the team on from a poor run of just three wins from Tottenham's past 12 games.
"It's disappointing to lose games of football and we're not happy after that one, but we've got more positives to take from this game than the last game. We scored three goals so that was obviously pretty positive," he said. "I mean it was a tough game at the weekend and this game we were playing probably the best team in Europe. It was always going to be a tough game, but we showed positives we can take into Fulham.
"We obviously weren't happy with the result at Arsenal or anything like that. It took a bit out of us, but we were always going to bounce back. That's football. You can't dwell on things for too long because you have got a game every three or two days."
Gray is at least playing in midfield now after spending much of his first season at Tottenham in central defence or as a full-back following his £40million move from Elland Road, due to the injury crisis that engulfed the club under Ange Postecoglou and has seeped into Frank's reign.
The teenager is enjoying the coaching sessions with Frank and his staff as he concentrates on being in the middle of the park again.
"The coaching staff have been absolutely brilliant with everyone, especially improving our individual games and stuff like that," he said. "Last season was a tough season, obviously it ended really well but a lot of tough moments in the season, especially for me playing centre-back and all these different positions, which I'm grateful for but there were loads of setbacks.
"It is just things to learn from and the coaching staff this year have been really helpful with individual plans and stuff like that."
Gray is aware of the desire from the Spurs fans for the team to play entertaining football but has backed Frank's decisions to alter the tactics for certain games.
"I think every club wants to play entertaining football and sometimes when you play teams like PSG you obviously have to alter that a little bit," he explained. "They are the champions of Europe, so they have that individual quality where they can take you apart in literally one moment.
"Obviously we all want to play entertaining football, but sometimes you might have to adapt that for certain games and we're 100 per cent with the coaching staff and the manager."