Toronto’s Mike Grella scored a hat-trick for the reserves against Barnsley last night, to stake his claim for a contract at Leeds United.

Before last night’s game Simon Grayson had said that half a dozen of the side were playing for their futures at Leeds United, yet aftet the game the main talking point was the performance of trialist Mike Grella. 

Grella is a 21-year-old United States youth international, and he began his career at Duke University before spells with Long Island Rough Riders and Cary Clarets in the fourth tier of American football. He was drafted by Canadians Toronto FC (managed by our fondly remembered John Carver!) in the MLS Superdraft earlier this month, although he will be free to join a European side.

Last night he scored a hat-trick in an impressive performance, as well as showing good close control and the ability to go past defenders, although he didn’t win a great deal in the air. Perhaps one of his efforts could go down as an own goal (his shot taking a slight deflection off a defender) and the keeper should have save the third, but at least Grella kept getting into the right positions to score the goals. 

Reserve-team manager Neil Thompson told the club website: "That's all you can do as a striker. He was tidy around the ball and his finishing was good.He's still a young lad. He's showed a good attitude in training, but strikers are there to score goals and he did that."  The management will certainly be having another look at Grella after this performance, though admittedly it was against a rather poor and inexperienced Barnsley side.

With Showumni likely to be out for a while we could do with another striker in the squad, and his Grella gave a much better showing than Christie, who unfortunately looked off the pace once again. Let’s hope the American gets his chance against sterner opposition.  

Photo: Action Images

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