Grant Holt

Grant Holt

Personal information
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Shrewsbury Town
Number	16

Grant Holt (born 12 April 1981 in Carlisle, England) is an English footballer, currently playing for Shrewsbury Town. He plays as a striker, and is most well known for his time at Rochdale.

Early career

He played for several Conference clubs in his early career, including Barrow, Workington, Halifax Town and in Singapore with Sengkang Marine, before he was signed by Sheffield Wednesday. He made 30 appearances, half of them as a substitute, but only managed four goals.

For Rochdale, he made 83 appearances and scored 42 goals. This made him a target for many higher league clubs, but it was Nottingham Forest who paid £300,000 to secure his services in January 2006.

Nottingham Forest

Holt made a slow start to his time with the Reds, only netting four times in as many months at the end of the 2005-06 campaign. In November 2006, he turned down a move to Bristol City due to personal reasons, after the two clubs had agreed a fee. However, despite being on the bench for approximately half of Forest's games in the 2006-07 season, he managed to score eighteen goals in all competitions to become the club's top scorer. Forest fans recognised Holt's battling performances by handing him the 'Player of the Season' award.

In the summer of 2007, Holt and Forest boss Colin Calderwood reached an "uneasy truce" after the striker had a transfer request rebuffed when Forest refused to give him an improved contract. Holt made it clear that he would be "happy to stay" with Forest for the 2007-08 campaign, while Calderwood admitted "he's not a player we want to see leave". However, Holt failed to impress by only scoring three times all season, one goal in a 2-2 draw at Bristol Rovers and a brace in Forest's 4-0 victory over Leyton Orient.

In March 2008, Holt signed on loan with Championship club, Blackpool, making his debut as a late substitute against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on 22 March. He made four substitute appearances before returning to Forest in the summer of 2008, saying he would like to stay and fight for his place in Forest's team next season, despite interest being shown from his home town club Carlisle United.

Shrewsbury Town

On 24 June 2008, Shrewsbury Town broke their club transfer record by signing Holt for £170,000. He was revealed at a club press conference along with defender Michael Jackson. Holt opened his scoring account for the Shrews on his debut, scoring from the penalty spot against Macclesfield Town, in a game the Shrews won 4-0.

Holt has now scored on his debut for Rochdale, Sheffield Wednesday, Barrow, Nottingham Forest and Shrewsbury Town.

On 7 October 2008, in a Football League Trophy 2nd Round match against Wycombe Wanderers, Holt scored five of the seven goals (scoring in the 12th, 27th, 80th, 81st and 86th minutes), in the Shrews' 7-0 win.

Holt has scored six goals in just two appearances, the first in a match against Macclesfield Town (a penalty) and the other five in just his second game for the Shrews: A cup tie agains Wycombe Wanderers. (See above).

External links

• Grant Holt at Soccerbase