Foxsports - Reddy, who just finished a stint playing with Mark Rudan’s Sydney United side in the NSW Premier League, split acrimoniously from Sydney FC before moving to Tehran to play for Esteghlal in Iran’s premier competition.

The burly goalkeeper, who will vie with Justin Pasfield to replace Mat Ryan in goal, knows how close he has come to losing his A-League career.

“I know it's my last chance,” Reddy told foxsports.com.au.

“Things that happened at Sydney, I'm not proud of. But they happened. I've been told, and I know this myself, this is my chance.

“I’m very grateful the Mariners have given me the opportunity to play at the highest level again.

“I've got to get it right on and off the park.”

The former Brisbane Roar, Wellington Phoenix, Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC No.1 ventured to Iran to continue his professional career after things went wrong at Moore Park.

“Honestly, the people are wonderful people, the culture is nice, the food was beautiful - it's not as bad as everyone thinks it is. It's quite a nice country,” Reddy said.

“But the payment structure was with the US dollar, which is hard to come by at the moment in Iran. So it was hard to pay the foreign players.

“It was difficult because I went over by myself, left my wife and kids at home, only because there were no English schools there because of the restrictions on the country.

“It’s actually a beautiful part of the world but not many people know about it because of the restrictions on it.”

Does he regret going?  

“I’m very glad I did go,” Reddy said.

“I lived with Jlloyd Samuel (former Aston Villa and Bolton player) and am good friends with him now. He was in the same situation, with his wife and children back in England. I speak to him once a week, made a good friend out of it.

“It was a good life experience.

“But, the football side of things – it’s not run as professionally as here in Australia, but we played a game, for example, in front of 100,000 people - just men.

“To see that was amazing.

“40,000 would come to every training session.

“Things like that was an eye opener, but the way things were run were amateurish, so it was definitely an experience.”

A football lifeline then came via his junior club, Sydney United. While Reddy enjoyed being able to “give back to a club that gave me so much in my junior days” and revelled in his senior role back in the New South Wales Premier League, it has provided him with a reality check – Reddy acknowledges that he can’t take his professional career for granted.

“Yes it was (a reality check), but I actually really enjoyed my time there,” Reddy added.

“Sydney United is my junior club. My kids play there. It was a great club to be around and I have a lot of friends in and around that club, so it was great to give back to a club that gave so much to me in my junior days.

“I was the oldest in the team - so they looked to me for advice. That was a good thing for me. I took it on board, I enjoyed it. I think it's opened my eyes up, definitely; if you don't perform then you might have to play at that level - but that's taking nothing away from that level.”

Reddy is grateful for the chance Rudan afforded him, but now has his eyes on the Mariners and will be ready when called upon – “be it round one, or round 10”.

“It’s definitely good to be back in the A-League, at this club, a well run club, with a great bunch of boys,” Reddy added.

“(People) talk about the team unity and how close it is, and you don't realise how true it is until you actually are a part of it.

“It's a great club for me to come back in.”