Grant Holt has hailed his 'phenomenal' 18 months at Carrow Road – and despite being a hat-trick hero on Saturday, he was still happy to 'share' the match ball.

The Norwich captain made it 51 goals from 85 Norwich appearances in the thrashing of relegation-haunted Scunthorpe, hitting his third hat-trick for the club – on the day, a feat matched in just 15 minutes by team-mate Simeon Jackson.

Only Ralph Hunt has reached the 50-goal mark quicker in yellow, during the 1950s, while Holt has passed the milestone before the likes of Ted MacDougall, Ron Davies and Roy Hollis.

It has been an amazing time for Holt, who joined from Shrewsbury in the summer of 2009 and celebrates his 30th birthday when City travel to Watford tomorrow week.

'What's happened here for me has been fantastic and I never dreamt when I first signed that it would go so well,' said the striker.

'And I'm lucky I came to a club where we've got a manager who wants to win and score goals, and he's built a team behind me that can put the chances on there for you. It's been phenomenal what has happened with me in the last 18 months and I'm just enjoying my football.'

Holt was selfless in his praise of fellow hat-trick hero Jackson, who bagged his first goals since the 1-0 home win over Middlesbrough on October 23.

In fact, the City skipper was confident both Norwich and Jackson would hand someone a heavy defeat soon enough.

'I'm more pleased for Simeon than I am for myself,' said Holt. 'It's been coming.

'His work rate the last few weeks and the way he has kept going, and he was unlucky the other week against Bristol City not to get a goal.

'So to get the three goals today I thought was absolutely fantastic and it was not the sign of someone who hasn't scored goals for Norwich, the way he finished them.'

Understandably, Holt felt City's 6-0 drubbing of Scunthorpe was the perfect performance: 'I think so. We have been talking in the last few weeks that it has been coming.

'We have been playing well and moving it, and we have not missed a cutting edge but had a bit of bad luck.

'Things have dropped the other side of the post and I think if we had got the second in a few of them, then someone was going to get hurt, and it's just unfortunate today it was my pal Nelse (Michael Nelson) that got hurt.'

Having beaten a team in serious relegation trouble, next Saturday's task will be the one every City fan has looked towards – a trip to automatic promotion rivals Swansea City that could do so much to shape the rest of the season.

'Whatever we did, it was going to be a big one next week; we knew that coming into this,' said Holt, with the Swans suffering a surprise defeat at a rejuvenated Preston on Saturday.

'We had to worry about getting the three points here and we can never worry about what goes on at other places. As the manager says every week, you worry about your own job and see where it takes you and it sets it up nicely for next week.

'We are not stupid. We are going to go down there and it is going to be a tough game, and they are a team that is going to be hurting from getting beat at Preston – and it should be fantastic for everyone to watch.'