IT WAS MORE MENTALITY THAN TALENT WHICH GAVE ME THE EDGE

GRANT Holt finished the 2011-12 Premier League season as the second-highest scoring Englishman behind Wayne Rooney.

- Chris Dunlavy

But for the form of a young Andy Carrroll, the then-Norwich City striker might even have been on the plane for Euro 2012.

“I was inches away,” says Holt, now 39 and still playing for Wroxham in the Eastern Counties Premier.

“Ahead of the Euros, I know for a fact that they rang Norwich to ask about my medical history. I didn’t get picked but it’s still an achievement. I never dreamed that I’d even have a sniff of getting in an England squad. In the end, I came that close.”

Holt is justifiably proud of a career that saw him score 232 goals in 665 games at almost every level from the North West Counties to the Premier League.

Yet the break that took him from Non-League Barrow to Sheffield Wednesday in 2003 was pure serendipity.

“There was a man called Bill Green, a former player who sadly passed away recently,” explains Holt, who currently combines coaching in the Norwich City academy with a role as Director of Football at Langley School in Loddon.

“Bill was working for Sheffield Wednesday at the time, but came up to Newcastle for a christening one Sunday. He was at a loose end the day before and knew someone who played for Blue Star so he came along to the game.

“I played in the game for Barrow and scored a hattrick. Bill watched me again, got me into Sheffield Wednesday for a trial game and within five weeks I was playing in the First Division.

“It was a fluke, really. Right place, right time. But that’s how it happens. If anybody sees a good player, the first thing they do is tell someone else. People want to be involved in a story. If a player makes it big, they want to be able to say ‘Ah, remember when I told you about him?’.