REIGNING Adver Sport player of the year Anthony Grant revealed his surprise at being asked to return to centre-back by Swindon Town manager John Sheridan ahead of two crucial away games in the past week.

The 33-year-old had made 20 appearances this season before last Saturday’s trip to Fleetwood, none of which had seen Grant play anywhere other than central midfield.

But centre-back is not a role that is completely alien to the former Shrewsbury Town man as Grant played in the heart of defence during Swindon’s League Two-winning campaign last year.

Last season’s Adver Sport player of the year took to his new job like a duck to water and helped Town keep two clean sheets during victories over the Cod Army and Bristol Rovers.

Discussing his return to defence, Grant said: “It’s going well so far, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

“It’s just two games, and everyone is working hard – the players out of the team, the guys on the bench. Everyone is working hard to create competition in the team, so that’s good.

“I’ve been asked to play centre-half, but I could play anywhere. I was surprised to get asked to play centre-back because we’ve got a lot of centre halves, but I’m not going to say no – it’s just me getting on with my job. It’s just me being me.”

Grant made the comments after Town’s narrow win against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night. Integral to Sheridan’s men shutting out the Gas for the second time this season, Grant said an excellent team spirit helped to push the starting XI onto success.

He said: “It was a fantastic team performance. Obviously, being away from home is different so it’s not like we’ve got to be on the front foot, even though we like to get in people’s faces.

“But we’ve got a good team spirit – even players who aren’t playing are wishing the boys all the best for the game.

“Everyone wants to do well, everyone wants to win games because no one likes losing.

“We’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal and keep trying to grind out wins.”