Grant Holt turned in a vintage striker's performance to earn City another away win on Saturday, but admitted he doesn't care how the job is done - as long as it is done.

Grant Holt turned in a vintage striker's performance to earn City another away win on Saturday, but admitted he doesn't care how the job is done - as long as it is done.

City's leading scorer struck the only goal of the game after 53 minutes, having spurned other opportunities to put the game beyond Oldham's reach well before their kitchen sink-throwing finale.

But three points was what the manager ordered - so the end result suited Holt fine, even if the margin could have been wider.

"I'm not really bothered," said Holt, who now has 19 league goals, plus half a dozen others.

"As long as we win 1-0 I don't really care.

"As long as we win I am not bothered with the manner it comes - if we play brilliant or it should have been more. We'd take a 1-0 at the start of the game, we got that.

"We did well, we created chances, unfortunately first half we didn't manage to stick them in the net. I was absolutely delighted to get the goal and get the win. The lads are absolutely delighted in there and we are happy to go away with the win."

Holt was annoyed with one effort he slid past a post, but more philosophical about a first-half effort disallowed for offside.

"He (the referee) said I was, but I'm not sure if I'm honest," said Holt. "It's gone and you can't do anything about it, you just have to get on. I was more disappointed with the chance when I got slipped through and I pulled it wide when I should have at least hit the target.

"But we got the win, I managed to get the goal and roll on the next game."

It wasn't quite that simple: goalkeeper Fraser Forster denied Oldham sub Keigan Parker with an excellent low save to his left with the game in its final minutes, but Holt said he wasn't surprised by Oldham's late rally.

"I thought at spells towards the end we were a little bit sloppy, we panicked a little bit, which was a bit unfortunate, but I think we could have had more towards the end if we'd knuckled down, but Fraser (Forster) does what Fraser does best and kept us in the game," he said.

"Oldham are a good side. They've got a lot to fight for, they're down at the bottom. We knew it would be a hard game, they've got two big lads up front who are lively and (Jason) Price went on the wing and then came back and was lively.

"I thought the lads at the back were fantastic, they headed everything, Doc (Gary Doherty) and Nelse (Michael Nelson) - it was a tough test for those two boys, because they're no mugs and they got it rammed down their throat and I thought they were fantastic."

Oldham's Boundary Park is a far cry from the likes of Carrow Road and Elland Road, but Holt knows that if you don't take care of games like this, promotion won't happen.

"These are the games," he said. "It's alright having Leeds at home and going to Swindon and Huddersfield away, but these are the games, away at Oldham, who are in a relegation battle.

"You come here, it's not attractive football, but you grind it out and these are the games where if you win games, that's how you win leagues. The big ones take care of themselves, these are the ones where you need to get the points on the board."

It's a five-point gap back to Leeds with the games ticking away - but the target remains constant.

"You have to grind out 1-0s and clean sheets and we know now in our sights that we want to win the league," said Holt. "It's there for us to take - we're top of the pile and everyone has to catch us now. If we worry about ourselves and win the games, we know we have to, we will win the league.

"We have a big March coming up where I think if we can go through that and come out the other side quite well we won't be far off."