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Why City have the Holts Steven and Gary to thank for the arrival of Holt, Grant

24th July 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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City supporters have, it appears, two other Holts to thank for today's arrival of 'the big one' – Shrewsbury Town's leading goalscorwer Grant Holt.

Formerly, of course, of Nottingham Forest where he was a team-mate of that other Holt, Gary.

Back in Carlisle a third Holt was making the headlines this evening. Grant's brother, Steven. A long-distance Canary fan; one heading south as we speak to see his bro make his Carrow Road debut tomorrow against a Manchester United XI.

Gary Holt, first. “He's told us how good the football club is; how good the surroundings are – so I'll take his word for it,” said Holt (Grant). Holt (Gary) is almost an adopted son of Norfolk now; most summers he can be found keeping wicket for Halvergate as the one-time Army chef embeds himself further into the Norfolk landscape.

And then there was Steven. “My brother has been a big follower of Norwich City for a long time and he's quite happy.”

Not that he's remotely local. Though that could all change.

“He's always been a fan; always watched them. And when I told him they were interested, I think he was going to ring the chairman himself to try and push the deal through. So he's very happy; he's down for the weekend and he'll be looking forward to seeing the game tomorrow.”

Whether he'd be sniffing a season ticket is another matter, as Holt displayed a nice, gentle line in humour. Ideally, he's neither nice nor gentle once he crosses that famed white line.

“It's a long way to come down from Carlisle every weekend, but I'm just trying to sort that deal out now – that, hopefully, the club would give him free flights every weekend. I can't see it though…” he said.

Style-wise, what have the season ticket holders and Michael Foulger just bagged themselves?

“A bit of a nuisance; someone who works hard; scores goals – just a bit of everything, really,” he said. “I'm not going to burn people with my electric pace, but I'll work them hard – I'll certainly give everything I've got to make this club successful.”

Could he hit the kind of goal-mark that tends to separate the men from the boys at this level; the mid-table nobodies from the promotion somebodys?

“To score 20, 30 goals would be fantastic and I think I've got it in the locker to do that,” he said. “But getting the team promoted – that's my job.”

It took a while to prise him out of Paul Simpson's hands; now he was here in Norfolk, the feeling was 'fantastic'.

“As the Gaffer has said, it's been a long time coming,” said Holt, with Gunn's patient pursuit finally landing his man after five weeks of trying.

“Obviously as soon as I heard that Norwich City were interested, they're a big club – it's what dreams are made of,” said Holt, as a few of his brother's dreams came equally true tonight.

“If you want to move; to advance yourself; play at the highest level you can, the chance to come here and get the club back up to where it belongs is a great opportunity.”

Having bagged 28 goals last season, was the pressure on for him to deliver again this season? Certain expectations always come with that No9 shirt.

“There's always pressure on you wherever you go,” he said. “When you get bought for money and you're a centre-forward, you are there to score goals. At whatever level.

“I dropped down from the Championship to Shrewsbury last season with the goal of scoring goals and I've done that. And I'm now just looking forward to coming here.”

And scoring goals in equal abundance would be the fond hope of Norfolk tonight. He is, after all, no stranger to League One. Roll the clock back to 2006-2007 and Holt was garbbing 17 goals for Nottingham Forest at this level. Three years older, wiser and stronger, the hope would be that Holt was now approaching his prime as a striker.

“I've scored goals before at this level,” he said. “Am I coming into my prime? I don't know – we'll see next year.

“If I achieve everything that I want to here, then I'll say I'm in my prime. But I did well last year; I've had a good couple of years now and I'm just excited about a new challenge – to come here and showing everyone that I should be at this level. Or should be higher, really.”

He, like one or two others, had had a 'tidying up' operation over the summer. But having got a full 90 minutes under his belt in last Saturday's Shropshire Senior Cup final clash with Telford United, the 28-year-old insisted his fitness wasn't a problem.

“It's going well,” he said. “It's been documented that I had an operation in the summer; obviously I rested that as best as I could. I've done a lot of training with Shrewsbury – I've only managed to miss the first week of pre-season, but I felt really good in the game at the weekend.

“I'm fine and I'm ready to go.”


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