NATHAN Grimaldi will forever remember fondly a game most of his teammates would rather forget.
With Newcastle trailing 4-0 against Sydney at Allianz Stadium last Friday night and only eight minutes remaining, Jets coach Rob Stanton made a double substitution, sending on Carl Jenkinson, a former English Premier League veteran, and Grimaldi, a 22-year-old making his A-League debut.
Together the unlikely couple helped Newcastle avoid any further damage, and Stanton made special mention at the post-match press conference of Grimaldi, whom he knew from their days together at Sydney FC.
"I knew when we signed Nathan he could play and he could handle it, no problems," Stanton said. "I just wanted Nathan to get used to full-time training. He's played a couple of seasons in NPL.
"He came out of Sydney FC's academy, he's a big strong boy, and if he could handle full-time training, he was good for a two-year contract, which I've handed him.
"He's come on, I thought he was pretty good and composed. If you're going to throw him on, put him under a lot of pressure, I wanted to see that, how he handled himself."
Stanton predicted Grimaldi will "be a really good player for this club", and the defender is a chance to make his first starting appearance in Tuesday's clash with Brisbane Roar at McDonald Jones Stadium.
"People like him," Stanton said. "His attitude is tremendous. He's got fantastic character, and it will come out in spades.
"He's a winner and he's a leader, so we'll keep developing him and the fans will like him."
Grimaldi said it was "obviously a dream of mine, to play professionally".
"I'm just grateful that Rob and all the coaching staff put their trust in me," he said.
"Even signing me back a couple of months ago, that was a dream too.
"I was just happy to get on the field, and although the result was a bit unfortunate, for me personally, it was a bit of a milestone ticked.
"But we're looking obviously to bounce back from that result."
Grimaldi said he felt training in a full-time professional environment had improved his game "immensely".
"I just want to soak it in and add it to my game," he said.
