It has been a frustrating first half of the campaign at Blackburn Rovers for the Australian.

He has struggled for fitness and been unable to string a series of games together.

The man who signed him, Paul Ince, has since been sacked and now Grella faces the task of showing new boss Allardyce that he is the man to help lift Rovers clear of relegation trouble.

Grella told the club's official website: "When you are back on the pitch and you can perform to a certain level then everyone will forget about the injuries. And I want to get out there to show the manager how I can play.

"I'm hoping to impress myself by staying on the pitch for a while. From what I've seen of the manager I think I can do a good job for him.

"I want to get myself fit and I don't want my first impressions when I'm out on the pitch to not be the right impressions, so I'm working very hard to do everything right so that when I am out on the pitch there are no excuses and he sees the player that Blackburn bought in the summer."

Rovers face a potential banana skin against Blyth with the winners to face Sunderland in the fourth round.

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce said: "As a manager you have to rotate your squad and this is an ideal situation to do that.

"It's against a team that play non-league football and we're a group of professionals in the Premier League so we should have enough to beat them.

"But that's down to good preparation and a positive attitude on the night."