Shaw collars old friend Holt after Canaries win

Sporting Norwich City striker Grant Holt’s shirt, Town target man Jon Shaw revealed he is assembling his own display of Premier League scalps on his wall at home, writes Mark Wood.

Shaw has remained good friends with Holt since the pair were youngsters together at Sheffield Wednesday and Shaw was delighted to put one over on him as Town triumphed 1-0 in the fourth round of the FA Cup at Carrow Road on Saturday.

On what he’ll be doing with the shirt, Shaw said: “I’m going to stick it in a frame next to the Wolves one, next to my own, and possibly next to another one that’s going to come in the next game.

“It’s been an amazing year, the Trophy run, the Cup run, we are still in touch with the league, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Swept up in the moment of Luton’s victory at the end, Shaw had almost forgotten to fulfil his pre-match arrangement with his old friend as he rushed off the bench to celebrate.

“Somebody told me there were about 10 seconds left,” he said. “The jumper came off, the jumper was back on and I was out there. I was trying to find everybody, get hold of Scott (Rendell), see the fans, see my family and then I forgot about Grant Holt. I had to run back over to get my shirt off of him. What an occasion.

“I was hoping to get in and see him before I leave. We haven’t seen each other in quite a long time, since he were at Shrewsbury and I was at Rochdale. But you never lose friends like that. He’s a great kid, I love him to bits and what he’s done in his career is the blueprint for any young footballer. You go out and you work as hard as that you’ll get your rewards.”

He was also delighted to have made history as Town became the first non-league team to have beaten Premier League opposition, as Shaw continued: “You go down in the history books don’t you. Your career might finish and people might have to ask you what did you ever do in your career? And sometimes people haven’t got an answer. Well now we’ve all got an answer.

“We’ve got a piece of history that we take away with us. Most of us have got shirts to prove it and I think everybody will have the match video to show it as well.”

Shaw was delighted fellow striker Scott Rendell had stolen the headlines as he praised all of his team-mates.

He continued: “I think you just have to look at the absolute effort by the lads. From minute one to the end we didn’t look like the Conference side against the Premier League team, we’ve worked ourselves into the ground and thoroughly deserved the win.

“I’m so happy for Scott Rendell, there are people who have said this and that about him, but he’s got 11 goals now and what an important goal that is for the club, for us, and one that we’ll never forget.

“It’s something we’ve said from the start of the season that we’re a great squad. We’re not 11 players with a few fringe players, we’re an 18, 19, 20-man squad. No matter who you replace with we are a team that is as good as each other, we know that, and that’s why we’re happy for each other when things like that happen.

“We came off and they went on and scored and we’re just as happy – it’s like we were out there anyway.

“I think from the minute the draw was made, nobody got overawed, nobody thought we’re going up against Premier League, we just thought let’s go and enjoy it.

“I think it helps settle you until you get here. We’ve been thoroughly professional in the build-up, the work and what the staff have done with us. We had a gameplan, we stuck to it and we couldn’t be any happier.

“I think I had a little wobble after the game had finished. There’s all that excitement and I went across and picked up Corey Davidson who’s come all the way from Blythe to watch this game. There’s 4,000 fans shouting at you and you just start to well a little bit. You think you’ve just done something that nobody’s ever done before and it’s an occasion that nobody will ever forget.

“I’m 29 years old – you might never see it. You never know when you are going to get occasions like this, if they’re ever going to come. We’re the first to do it and it’s amazing.”

But with Norwich on such a bad run of form, Town’s stars had gone into the game believing an upset could be on the cards.

He added: “Strangely enough a few of us had talked about it and with the run that Norwich are on, they are only half a league above Wolves. I think a few of thought if they come at us like Wolves did, and we’re as organised and we concentrate for 90 minutes there’s no reason why we can’t get a draw or maybe sneak a win. Whether we actually genuinely thought it would happen, not so sure, but if we believed we could do it I think definitely.”