By Gordon S harrock: Grimsby 0, Bolton Wanderers 1 GIVEN the name, it was perhaps inevitable Mark Fish would scale the heights on his first visit to blustery Blundell Park; given the circumstances, Wanderers were delighted he did. To the headline writers, the colourful South African was a dream catch, in his manager's eyes a commanding figure and, according to his team-mates, his performance was "fantastic", "brilliant" or, as his skipper Scott Sellars put it, "quality".

But the most fitting tribute came from the 2,000 appreciative Bolton fans who hit the mark with a spontaneous rendition of "There's only one Fish in Grimsby!"

On a day when Wanderers didn't function at their best, stuttering in midfield and managing just one decent but decisive strike on goal, they needed an inspirational figure at the back, especially after Paul Warhurst limped off after just 15 minutes.

Fish obliged with a performance as influential as any since Colin Todd paid Lazio £2.5 million for his services 18 months ago.

"He was tremendous," the manager applauded. "Obviously with Paul going off we needed a strong performance and Mark led the back line well, commanded, won a lot of headers and was a tower of strength."

Keen in his anticipation of danger, powerful in the air and strong in the tackle, Fish was the standard bearer for a defence that stole the show, if not the glory. That went to Dean Holdsworth, who took advantage of an embarrassing mistake by former Wanderers' keeper Aidan Davison to score his fourth goal in three games, continuing his own rich vein of form and making it five wins on the trot for the Reebok heroes. Yet the most impressive feature of Fish's game was his discipline. Cavalier and with a tendency to be unnecessarily extravagant, the Cape Town crusader admits he's found it difficult to curtail his natural instincts while he adjusts to the defensive demands of Division One. Evidently he has learned his lesson - as have Wanderers as a team.

There were times in the early weeks of the season when they'd have given a king's ransom for a clean sheet; two shut-outs in their first 18 games brought justified criticism and cast a cloud over their promotion prospects.

But eight in their unbeaten run of 13, since their defeat at QPR on November 7, have laid a rock solid foundation and generated a confidence that should see them march straight back to the Premiership - without the need for play-off roulette.

Todd superstitiously touched a wooden door frame at the suggestion that his once-suspect defence now has the resilience and the ability to win games 1-0, if they have to. Not wishing to tempt fate and knowing he may need to cope without Warhurst for a spell, the Wanderers boss was reluctant to crow too loudly.

Nevertheless, there is a growing self-assurance among the players and, boasting replacements with the class of Robbie Elliott, a squad with great strength in depth.

The Geordie stepped into the breach after Warhurst's departure to give such an impressive display that he looked born to be a centre-back - a testimony to the talent and versatility of the player whose skills were so tragically denied Wanderers for all but three-and-a-half games of their last Premiership campaign.

"Robbie's been breathing down my neck lately," Mike Whitlow acknowledged, recognising the fact that it's his No 3 shirt that is under most threat as Elliott looks to put last season's heartache behind him, once and for all.

"Having people like him around keeps everyone on their toes and it really helps. He can play anywhere along the back four. It just happened on this occasion that he had to go in at centre-back when we lost Paul. "Paul's a very good player but, all credit to Robbie. It's not easy when you haven't played for a while but he's gone in there and you would never know he'd been out. He was fantastic.

"That sums up the confidence in the side at the moment. We took a lot of criticism in the early part of the season but we've worked hard on our organisation and we're going away from home now and the first thing we stress is the importance of keeping a clean sheet.

"We've got enough quality in the side to win games with Michael, Per, Claus, Scottie, Bobby and Deano, who is on fire at the moment. That showed when we had just one chance and took it . . . one-nil!

"Before we started this run we couldn't hold onto a one-nil but we've worked hard on that side of the game and that's a credit to everyone. Now people are sitting up and taking notice, which is nice."

Sunderland and Bradford will continue to take notice too, if Wanderers can continue in this relentless fashion of blitzing teams when they are at their best and grinding out wins when they are not!

Mariners' boss Alan Buckley had every reason to feel miffed. He'd seen his surprise guys play their way into promotion contention with six wins and a draw in their previous eight games and was pleased with this performance against the division's form team. "Colin probably won't agree," he suggested, "but I don't care. We were the better team for a lot of the game and we've ended up losing.

"I'm not disappointed with the performance but I am disappointed with the goal."

So too was Davison. Impeded by his own central defenders and under pressure from Holdsworth, who'd chased what seemed a lost cause, he spilled a high ball and the celebrations were in full swing before he could get back on his feet.

Big enough to shoulder the blame, the Northern Ireland international confessed: "It was always going to be settled by a mistake - unfortunately it was me who made it."

Considering that was the only serious scoring chance of a game dominated by defences and surprisingly cluttered by two normally tidy and inventive midfields, Davison and his Grimsby team-mates can consider themselves unfortunate to lose only their second home game.

But Wanderers worked hard for their reward. Fish and Co restricted Buckley's attackers to shots from long range while Holdsworth and Bob Taylor worked hard at the other end, maintaining the form that kept Arnar Gunnlaugsson on the sidelines before his transfer to Leicester and suggesting that Bo Hansen won't be an automatic first choice when he jets in from Brondby. For all Todd's reservations - he admitted his midfield lacked its usual fluency, gave the ball away too frequently and could have provided a better screen to protect the back four - the manager saw this as a most significant victory in the quest for a top two place.

"We can play better and we will play better but, with 17 games left, it's all about winning," he said.

Quietly confident but without making wild predictions or setting targets, Todd believes Wanderers are now well-equipped and well-adjusted. "The know-how in the team and the experience we went through last season, when we were unfortunate to go down, should stand us in good stead.

"We found it difficult in the early part of the season to focus for 90 minutes. We were playing extremely well for 20 or 30 minutes and getting ourselves into winning positions then switching off. Instead of winning games we were drawing them.

"I've always known we are capable of scoring goals but now we've shown we can keep clean sheets, without being negative. And clean sheets win you games, they don't lose you games."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.