I DID a bit of personal detective work at the Reebok yesterday, trying to find a blade of grass Stuart Holden hadn’t covered in his all-action display against Tottenham.

I couldn’t find a single one, but I wasn’t surprised because I saw for myself on Saturday how much effort the kid puts into his performances.

Without wishing to play down the contributions of anyone else in what was an outstanding team performance – Kevin Davies was immense, Gretar Steinsson played Gareth Bale at his own game and our two centre-backs were superb – but that brilliant, last-ditch tackle of Stu Holden’s on William Gallas in the third minute of overtime summed up everything he brings to the team.

He has energy, determination, a great commitment and he can play – all the ingredients you want from the complete midfield player.

And it didn’t surprise me in the slightest when I was told the statistics that showed he had made more tackles than any other player in the Premiership on Saturday.

Physically, he doesn’t look like a player who can impose himself, but appearances can be deceptive – as we have seen by the way he and Fabrice Muamba have developed a relationship in midfield that is proving so effective in the Premier League.

It might not be the most glamorous job in football, but Stuart’s not like that anyway. He’s a level-headed lad who just gets on with the job, although I do know he loves to hear the fans chanting “USA-USA-USA”.

I was chanting it myself when Stu put that tackle in on Gallas that not only snuffed out Tottenham’s hopes of an equaliser but set the move in motion that ended with Davies cleverly heading the ball into the path of Martin Petrov – Mr Cool – to calmly knock in the fourth goal.

Tottenham were shellshocked. When you look how far they have come in recent years and you know how good a side they are – earlier in the week they’d beaten European champions Inter Milan – to see them virtually torn apart for the first 70 minutes tells you just how good a performance it was by Owen Coyle’s boys.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see Gretar Steinsson ignore all the pre-match hype about Bale and rise to the occasion. In fact, I expected him to take the game to Tottenham.

He’s an attack-minded full-back – in much the same mould as Phil Brown and Jimmy Phillips were in their Bolton days.

They had the attitude that the best form of defence was attack, but they could defend as well, and that’s what you get from Gretar – the best of both worlds.

As for Davo, I trust Fabio Capello was as impressed as the rest of us and will name him in his squad for England’s friendly against France next week.

I can’t speak too highly of the skipper. As a player he’s getting better with age and his influence is growing with every passing year.I’ve said before, I would love to have played in the same team.

What a worker and what a leader – both on and off the field. I call him the “silent leader” because he doesn’t shout his mouth off. He doesn’t have to, he just lets his performances do the talking.

Speaking of England, I’m sure Capello will also have seen that Gary Cahill was getting back to his best and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s seriously considering naming him in his squad again.

Seeing how impressive Wanderers were on Saturday – all over the park – I’m looking forward to seeing them maintain that level of performance against another of my old teams, Everton.

I’m sure Wanderers fan Yvonne Waddington will have been cheered by Saturday’s result.

Along with her husband Andrew, daughters Louise and Lisa and son Christopher, Yvonne is a season ticket holder in the West Stand and a Wanderers fan through and through. She’s currently recovering from an operation but I’m sure she’ll soon be back in her usual seat at the Reebok.