Sydney’s unbeaten run since the March appointment of Kisnorbo came to an end with a 1-0 loss to Auckland FC in Saturday night’s A-League title decider at Go Media Stadium.
Grant, who was chasing a fifth A-League championship, said the Sky Blues “played into the hands” of the Steve Corica-coached Black Knights, who won the final thanks to a second-half goal from Cameron Howieson, whose shot found the back of the net via a deflection off Sydney defender Jordan Courtney-Perkins.
“Credit to Auckland – they got their chance, and they took it,” the Sydney skipper and veteran right-back said.
“We did want to try to play our style. At times we did and we did create some stuff but on the whole it was a pretty … scrappy game, and unfortunately we couldn’t get a goal at our end, and they did.
“It was on a knife’s edge for a while. They played a style of football that was going to suit them, and we played into their hands at time.”
However, amid the disappointment, Grant tried to be positive about what Sydney had accomplished under Kisnorbo, who before Saturday night had gone seven matches undefeated as Sky Blues coach after taking over from Ufuk Talay.
It was a run of matches that led to the former Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Victory coach signing a new three-year deal with Sydney last week.
“When ‘PK’ came in, we would have snapped a hand off to be in a final,” Grant said.
“To be here and lose is disappointing, but there are a lot of positives to build on.
“It’s hard to see at the moment with the disappointment, but we know we did really well when he came in, and the last couple of weeks we started to play some good football, but (the final) was a different style of football.
“We couldn’t get there, but as a group we’re still very proud of what we’ve done the last couple of months, and over the whole season, to be honest. We were in the top-six the whole time, and did really well at times.
“The proof’s in the pudding from the last couple of months. There’s a lot to build on, there’s a good foundation now, and hopefully we can keep a lot of faces around and build on it for next season.”
There are certain be changes to Sydney’s squad next season. Star winger Joe Lolley is off-contract and at long odds to remain with the Sky Blues, while striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos is set to return to Scottish Premiership club Motherwell now that his Sydney loan deal is over.
Peruvian playmaker Piero Quispe’s loan deal from Mexican outfit Pumas UNAM has also come to an end, while the Sydney future of under-achieving Spanish striker Victor Campuzano is likely to also be in doubt despite having a year to run on his contract.
