Mike Grella

Mike Grella marked his full debut for Carlisle United with a goal against Charlton Athletic in a 4-3 thriller at Brunton Park.

Charlton had led the game 3-0, but Mike Grella’s 58th minute goal inspired a heroic comeback from the Cumbrians who scored three in less than twenty minutes to level the tie.

Despite the impressive comeback from Carlisle, Charlton still managed to take all three points when Paul Benson headed home a winner deep into injury time leaving Carlisle 8th in the table – a win would have put them level on points with Bournemouth who currently sit second in League One.

It was Mike Grella’s second game for Carlisle after making his debut from the bench in the 2-1 defeat to Exeter earlier in the week.

Grella’s vanishing act!

Meanwhile, back in Leeds, Mike Grella has disappeared from Leeds United’s squad list which could mean the writing is on the wall for the American, who has had little chance to impress since Simon Grayson took charge at Elland Road.

Leeds fans previously grew concerned about Davide Somma’s future when the editor of the official site failed to add his name to the list. With Mike Grella however, it’s an entirely different scenario as the American was already on the list so must have been removed by the editor. If it was just a case of him being on-loan, you’d expect Tom Elliot and Tom Lees to have been removed too, but the duo are still listed.

Elsewhere…

Tom Elliot’s loan at Rotherham United appears to be on the rocks after manager Ronnie Moore was less than complimentary about the striker’s ability;

“It’s a major problem for him and it’s one we’ve really got to look at. If he’s not going to contribute to us then we may as well send him back to Leeds. We need someone here that’s going to contribute to the team.

“Paul Warne came on last weekend and was magnificent and he’s 37 but runs round like a 2 year old while Tom’s 19 and runs around like a 40 year old. It drives me crackers really.”

The outburst which was broadcast live on Radio Sheffield appears to have been in response to Elliot’s failure to hit the back of the net in four appearances.

Elsewhere, defender Tom Lees appears to be having a much better time of things at Bury where he’s already scored for The Shakers and also picked up a couple of man of the match awards from his fourteen appearances to date.