Chris Lakey Grant Holt led by example with a captain's performance against Wycombe - but will be more than happy to hand the armband back to Gary Doherty. With Doherty to the bench it was left to Holt to do the honours - although he proved that what he does best is scoring goals.

Chris Lakey

Grant Holt led by example with a captain's performance against Wycombe - but will be more than happy to hand the armband back to Gary Doherty.

With Doherty to the bench it was left to Holt to do the honours - although he proved that what he does best is scoring goals.

The first of the afternoon set the ball rolling for City; the final one of the afternoon was the icing on the cake.

How long Holt remains skipper depends on how long Doherty is out of the side, but the striker doesn't expect it to be a long-term appointment.

"I wouldn't have thought so," said Holt. "Obviously he was on the bench and the manager was looking around and obviously decided to give it to myself. We all know Gary is the captain of this football club, and I am sure for a long time to come.

"It is always an honour when someone comes in and gives you the opportunity to captain a club, but it's obviously foremost to get off the mark because I needed to score in the league, but it's a great honour when you get the armband and I'm just glad we won.

"It's not a responsibility you're going to turn down and say you don't want to do it. It's a fantastic honour to be a captain of any football club."

Holt battled through the discomfort of an infected wisdom tooth, but shrugged off the effects in typical fashion.

"I've had a bit of toothache over the night but once you get into the game you kind of forget about it," he said. "It's throbbing a little bit now, that's the nature of football, you have to get on with things. We're here to do a job and we did it today.

"It's only a tooth, it's not like I broke my leg or anything like that. I'm just glad we got the win today - it's a good start for the manager and a good start for the team."

The trip to the dentist is likely to be postponed until after tonight's game against Sunderland at Carrow Road.

"We'll sort it out sometime this week," he laughed. "I'll wait until after the game - I'm not the biggest fan of dentists."

Holt's opener, on 16 minutes, was the perfect start for a team whose last appearance in front of their own fans had ended in such ignominious circumstances.

"We knew that had been coming," he said. "Obviously we started off really well. We're a bit disappointed with the manner of the goal we let in, it gave them an opportunity to get back into the game but we showed what we are about at the moment. It's about being resilient and today we took our chances."

Holt could have had more, but five goals - including his Carling Cup hat-trick at Yeovil - in five appearances isn't a bad return.

"There is a bit of pressure on myself and I wanted to get off the mark in the league," he said. "I'm a bit disappointed I didn't manage to get the hat-trick, but that's the way it goes and I'm just delighted the team's won.

"We need to win at home. When you get crowds like that every week you need to impress them and I'm sure they will go home happy talking about what a good win we've had today."

Holt was brought in by previous boss Bryan Gunn, but was also a summer for his replacement, Paul Lambert, at Colchester.

Lambert made half a dozen changes on Saturday, but Holt was never likely to be among them.

"He's shaken it up a little bit," said Holt. "We have a great squad here and it's going to be hard to juggle.

"There were a lot of lads who were out today who will be working hard in training to try and get back in next week, but that just shows what he has at his disposal. He's come in and changed it around, done a few things he's had the opportunity to do over the last couple of days and I think it worked today."

Holt remains convinced that City will be at the sharp end come next May.

"I think you look at the players we have at the manager's disposal and there is no doubt we will be up there," he said.

"It's starting to click. I said it was going to take a little time for us all to gel and obviously when you bring a lot of players in it does take time.

"The new manager has come in, he's got plans of his own and obviously towards the next couple of weeks he will be trying to get them in place so the team is a little bit structured towards the way he wants to play and hopefully we will achieve what we set out to do a couple of weeks ago."