On a day of unbridled jubilation at Elland Road, records went tumbling as Leeds United obliterated Stoke City and announced their return to the Premier League stage in emphatic fashion.
As Joel Piroe scored four goals inside 41 minutes, the man now sitting at the summit of the Golden Boot rankings became the first ever Leeds United player to net a first-half quadruple.
Even Mark Viduka’s infamous four-goal salvo against Liverpool all those years ago was split up by a 15-minute interval in between. Piroe, though, calmed any lingering nerves around Elland Road in the blinking of an eye while also leapfrogging Norwich City’s Borja Sainz at the top of the scoring charts.
A tally of 94, meanwhile, not only means Daniel Farke can still reach a century of points during an outstanding second season in the dugout. It also means that this Leeds team have replaced the 2019/20 vintage as the most successful – points-wise – in a single league campaign.
Marcelo Bielsa’s beloved charges won the Championship title with 93 half a decade ago. Five years on, Leeds can end the campaign in triple figures, provided they can shake off the hangover in time to face Bristol City in next Monday’s Elland Road coronation.
As for Harry Gray, the teenage debutant who’s cameo appearance proved to be the icing on the cake against a shellshocked Stoke, a rather niche place in the history books also belongs to him.
Harry Gray breaks Leeds United record in Stoke City thrashing
As the LUFCDATA social media page points out, Harry is now the youngest member of the Gray family ever to feature in that famous white shirt.
And, the fifth member of the Gray clan to make his Leeds debut after Frank, Eddie, Andy and older brother Archie, the baby-faced 16-year-old was certainly not short of competition.
To more casual observers, the sight of Harry Gray grinning on his way into Elland Road pre-kick-off might have caused many a double-take. An almost spitting image of Archie, though that and a shared surname is where the similarities end.
While Archie has blossomed both at Leeds and current employers Tottenham Hotspur as a deep-lying playmaker or even as a ball-playing central defender, Harry’s emergence as a star-in-waiting comes on the back of some eye-catching displays as a centre-forward at youth level.
Daniel Farke explains why he handed Gray his Elland Road debut
As football correspondent Graeme Bailey tells Leeds United News, Tottenham would love to reunite Harry and Archie Gray in North London.
That is unlikely to happen any time soon, however, with Daniel Farke taking a moment amid the popping of champagne corks to explain just how highly the teenage striker is regarded behind the scenes at Thorpe Arch.
“The day was made for [Gray to make his debut],” Farke smiles, introducing young Harry off the bench at 6-0.
“But there are no gifts. I don’t like to praise a young lad too much too early. We liked what we saw on the training pitch. He has earned his position in the squad with hard work and good performances in training.
“Let’s be careful not to praise him too much [but Harry Gray is] impressive for a 16-year-old boy. Ap roud day for him and his family. It’s important to give him space to develop.”
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