In one of his best games in Sky Blue, Grant set up the Brett Emerton winner then came close to gifting the equaliser in the final minutes of action when the ball struck his arm in the box.

Coach Ian Crook was full of praise for the 21-year-old’s endeavour in a below-par team performance but the kid from Canowindra was just happy to see his side run out 2-1 winners over a 10-man Glory.

With a number of first-teamers still on the injury list the right-back is taking every opportunity to cement his place in the starting 11, and dropping two points at the death wasn’t part of the game-plan.

Grant says it was the longest moment of the game, waiting to see if referee Peter Green would wave play on.

“As soon as the ball hits your hand and knowing I was in the box and happening so late in the game it could have been very costly for us,” he said. “I jumped so my hands are automatically going to leave my body for balance and then the ball struck my hand.

“No one is going to make it obvious that they handballed it. You’re definitely not going to put your hand up and say, yep handball, or make it obvious. You’ve just got to continue to play and hope that the ref understands that it wasn’t deliberate.

“Crooky said to me (after the match) if that was against us he would have probably expected a penalty - and I’m probably on the same wavelength. If that was against us I’d be definitely shouting for a penalty and probably been pretty upset if it didn’t go our way.”

Sydney FC will still be missing Adam Griffiths, Fabio and Joel Chianese in their match against reigning premiers Central Coast Mariners on Saturday, while Pascal Bosschaart and Jason Culina are still some weeks away from action.

If Grant gets a start at Bluetongue, as expected, it will be his 50th appearance for the Sky Blues, coming a week after teammate and Azzurri legend Alessandro Del Piero notched up his 800th.

The disparity isn’t lost on the young utility – “still 750 to go” he said tongue-in-cheek – but neither is the opportunity, with Grant taking every chance to learn off the team’s storied veterans:

“Players like (Emerton and Del Piero) have done some pretty massive things in their careers, they’ve been around for a while so they do know what they’re talking about,” he said.

“They’re very smart footballers and they not only know their own game they can see your game. They’re not afraid to tell us (where we can improve) and that’s good, that’s what we want.

“When they talk to you, you listen. Del Piero has spoken to me a couple of times with ideas and tips he thinks will be better for me and better for the team.

“More about positioning and holding my ground here and stuff like that – ins and outs while the games happening or while we’re training.

“Not massive things but little things that will help us and may not be noticed by other people but will improve us.”

Grant is taking it all on board: You never want to get ahead of yourself but hopefully they way I played and with the win I get to start again and get a chance to cement my spot.”