It’s August 8th, 2009. Norwich City have just been thumped 7-1 by Colchester United. At home. In the third tier of English football.
It is a day that will be seen as a modern day nadir for many Canaries fans, with Bryan Gunn being given the boot the following week after such a horrendous start to the season, but it can also be looked at as the start of a new beginning at Carrow Road.
For that day was the first time Grant Holt put on the yellow and green shirt in a competitive fixture for the Norfolk side; starting the blossoming of something beautiful on the banks of the River Wensum.
Gunn’s tenure lasted just 211 days, as the former goalkeeper oversaw a troubled time at the club which resulted in relegation from the second tier, but in Holt he paved the way for the revolution to start, even if he wasn’t in the dugout to see the results.
Grant Holt EFL career: Sheffield Wednesday, Rochdale, Nottingham Forest, Shrewsbury Town
Fans of the Football League will have been well versed with Holt’s exploits across the football pyramid in the years preceding his move to East Anglia; having established himself as one of the leading marksman in the bottom three tiers of the professional game.
After working his way up through the non-league circuit with the likes of Workington, Halifax and Barrow, the striker signed for Sheffield Wednesday in 2003, before moving onto Rochdale the following January.
It was at Spotland that the striker began to really make a name for himself, with 34 goals in 75 league appearances seeing Nottingham Forest make a move for his services, with the former European Cup winners needing a goal-getter after slumping into the third tier.
21 goals over three seasons was far from what was expected at the City Ground, leaving Holt to drop back into League Two with Shrewsbury Town to reignite his career and rediscovering his form in front of goal.
With yet another side falling into the third tier when they have aspirations of Premier League football, Norwich City were the next club to come calling a year later, and it’s safe to say the forward’s fortunes were a bit different than his last move to fallen giant.
The Colchester disaster aside, Holt was immediately in the goals at Carrow Road, with a hat-trick against Yeovil Town in Gunn’s final match in charge, before a brace against Wycombe Wanderers as Paul Lambert took the reins in Norfolk.
With the likes of Wes Hoolahan, Paul McVeigh and Jamie Cureton surrounding him, Holt was given ample opportunities to get himself on the scoresheet during that season in the third tier, and he more often than not didn’t need asking twice.
Holt scores, Norwich win. That was the story for much of the campaign from thereon in, with a run of 14 goals in 15 games in all competitions marking his card as one of the most lethal strikers in the EFL, let alone the third tier.
Braces against Bristol Rovers, Stockport County and Southend United followed, on the way to plundering 30 goals in his first season as a Canary, and helping his side return to the Championship at the first time of asking.
Lambert knew he had something special on his hands, and with the addition of Simeon Jackson into the squad for the following campaign, Carrow Road was rocking once again as the Scot guided his side to historic back-to-back promotions.
Grant Holt firest Norwich City to memorable promotion to Premier League
Once again Holt was the protagonist; netting 23 times across the campaign to put his side into the second automatic spot, and put himself into Norwich City folklore in the process.
City fans would have happily built a statue of the striker after his performance in the East Anglian Derby in the November of 2010; with three clinical strikes seeing him take the match ball home from a 4-1 victory over Ipswich Town, as he emphatically ended the dispute for bragging rights against the local rivals.
Although he failed to find the net in the return fixture, the Canaries went on to win 5-1 at Portman Road to underline their superiority in the area at that moment in time, and leave promotion a whisker away.
| Grant Holt Norwich City stats (all competitions) | ||||
| Appearances | 168 | |||
| Starts | 146 | |||
| Goals | 78 | |||
| Source: Soccerbase | ||||
From Workington and Barrow to Wolves and Blackburn, Holt had reached the big time with Norwich City, and was showing no signs of slowing down once he was in the Premier League, with 17 strikes in his first season in the top flight.
There’s the old saying: ‘After the thunderstorm, comes the rainbow,’ and that is never more prevalent than Norwich City and Holt; with one of their finest strikers since the turn of the Century emerging at one of their darkest moments.
Few would have though the striker would be finding the net against Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United when he moved to Carrow Road, and probably even less so after the Colchester drubbing.
But in Holt they had a man who could produce the goods week in, week out, and was constantly given the service to do so by the creativity of Hoolahan, Jonny Howson and Andrew Surman in midfield.
He was all-action and all-goals, and despite failing to keep City in the Premier League in the following campaign he will always be well-remembered in one part of East Anglia especially.
With spells at Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa, Huddersfield and Wolves to follow, Holt continued to pester defences up and down the land following his Carrow Road departure, but never as prolifically as he did in a yellow and green shirt.
In a career that came full circle by hanging up his boots at Barrow, Holt became a leading marksman in every division he played in, and played a major part in restoring pride in the badge at Norwich City.
As for Bryan Gunn; with over 400 appearances to his name it’s not as if he doesn’t already have a legacy to live off in Norfolk, but bringing Holt to the club was a brilliant bit of business, and probably his finest moment in charge of the club.
