David Cuffley Personal records will take second place to title ambitions for Norwich City skipper Grant Holt over the closing weeks of the season. The Canaries' top scorer went into today's top-of-the-table clash with Leeds United at Carrow Road needing nine goals from the final nine matches to equal the club record of 37 in all competitions, set by Terry Allcock in 1962-63.

David Cuffley

Personal records will take second place to title ambitions for Norwich City skipper Grant Holt over the closing weeks of the season.

The Canaries' top scorer went into today's top-of-the-table clash with Leeds United at Carrow Road needing nine goals from the final nine matches to equal the club record of 37 in all competitions, set by Terry Allcock in 1962-63.

Similarly, striker Holt's tally of 22 League One goals is nine short of the record of 31 in a league season, set by Ralph Hunt in Division Three South in 1955-56.

But while Holt's 28 goals in all competitions this term is equal to the best total of his career - with Shrewsbury last season - his number one priority is promotion, followed by topping the division.

Holt said: “It's all about the promotion. I never set targets - whatever I get I get. If I get 30 it would be fantastic and at the moment I've got a chance to get the club's record. If I keep going the way I'm going I might have a slim chance of getting it.

“I never used to play up front. Last year's 28 was the biggest total I've got in a season and I'm looking to try to get a bigger figure.”

If he misses out on a new club record, his three-match ban in January and February may just prove to be the moment it slipped away, and he admits it took him time to regain his sharpness on his return to the side - though with five goals in the past seven games, one would never guess.

He said: “When I came back I wasn't the greatest. I was giving it away a little too much. It does get to you, you have three weeks off, you get out of the flow a little bit, your training is a little bit slower, it's not match tempo. But I still got a few goals in those games, which people forget about, so I can't be doing that bad.”

Holt's 28th goal of the season, in the 1-1 draw at Swindon last week, gave him the best total by a City player since Chris Sutton (1993-94) and Ted MacDougall (1975-76), but the gloss was taken off the occasion when a stoppage-time equaliser by Gordon Greer cost two points.

“Last week just shows the measure of the squad - of how disappointed we were just to get a point,” he said.