Tomas Butkovic pushes on after his first grade debut with Wollongong Wolves

However for Wolves junior Tomas Butkovic, this is exactly what he has done after starting in David Carney's side for their first three matches of the NPL NSW season against APIA, Sutherland and Marconi.

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The 19-year-old started his career at Figtree juniors, before moving into the Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) side for Football South Coast. From there, he signed for the Wolves juniors before spending two seasons in the Sydney FC academy. After that, he returned to the Wolves in the U-18s and has not looked back.

Butkovic's journey to making his first grade debut at home in their two-all draw against APIA was somewhat fortunate, but the youngster took his opportunity with both hands.

In the off-season the Wolves signed former Marconi goalkeeper Nenad Vekic to challenge then-number one shot-stopper Hayden Durose for a starting spot in Carney's new side.

After Durose signed with Albion Park in the Illawarra Premier League, Butkovic was quickly elevated to number two in the pecking order. Due to a suspension backlogged from last season for Vekic, Butkovic was given plenty of notice he would be playing in the game of his life at WIN Stadium against APIA.

"Coming into the season Carney made sure that he had both goalkeepers there obviously because he knew that I would be playing the first game," Butkovic told the Mercury.

"So ever since last year basically when they signed Nenad and I was there as well I knew and we all knew I would be playing the first game. It was good in that aspect because I knew that I could prepare for like four or five months [and know] that I would be playing the first game.

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"[I was] not really [nervous]. I think that when you are a football player every game is the same. I wasn't really nervous about it I was just really excited that I was going to do my thing and have a decent game and I don't think I did anything bad."

A win, a draw and a loss in their opening three games has seen Butkovic feel a range of emotions in his first 270-plus minutes of senior football.

Perhaps even more impressively, Butkovic is now keeping Vekic out of the team for the time being as the two battle for a starting spot in Carney side for their upcoming match against Northbridge Bulls on Saturday.

Even if Carney opts to go with a more experienced Vekic this weekend, Butkovic said he was proud of his performances so far. Being at such a young age, he is doing his best to become the Wolves first team goalkeeper for the next decade or more if he keeps his form up.

But despite the battle, Butkovic attributed his positive start to the season to both his challenger Vekic and also long-time and well respected goalkeeping coach, John Krajnovic.

It's a nice achievement to have [keeping my spot]," he said.

"Nenad is a very experienced goalkeeper he has been around the league for a while and is still a very good goalkeeper. It's nice to have a mentor like him to help me out and stuff. He's still very much wanting to play and he's still challenging and we're both still challenging each other for that one spot.

"Every single week it is like a battle but he's been very accommodating as well helping me out. And so I've been pretty proud of myself to be able to play OK and keep training well to still have that spot for the past few weeks and hopefully I can keep that spot.

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"I've been lucky. I've had 'Kraj' ever since I was maybe 12 years old. So 'Kraj' has basically taught me everything I know about goalkeeping."

Butkovic and Vekic will battle it out to be the starting goalkeeper this weekend against the Bulls. The side are looking to quickly recover from their four-nil humiliation at the hands of Marconi last Friday with the side conceding four goals in 17 minutes in the second half.

"The mood has been really high [after the Marconi loss]," Butkovic added.

"Obviously after a loss you need to just all bounce back and be together as a team. We have a very young squad and all of us are very excited and enthusiastic about this week because you need to bounce back really well after that.

"It's going to be tough with Lachlan Scott injured so we had to move players around but I still think we will be in a strong position."

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