By Gordon Sharrock: Grimsby Town 0, Bolton Wanderers 1 IT is far too soon in his career to know how history will judge Michael Ricketts' contribution to the cause.

But the Wanderers of the new Millennium already have a lot to thank the young striker for - not the least for ensuring them a place in the record books.

One chance ... just one sight of goal was all he needed and Sam Allardyce had achieved what no other manager in the club's proud and distinguished history could ever claim - four successive away wins at the start of a season.

Of course it means nothing at this particular moment in time but it's encouraging to think that the teams who shared the previous three win record - in 1904-05 and 1934-35 - both went on to clinch promotion back to top flight football!

Allardyce is making no outrageous predictions about whether his team can repeat the successes of his forebears and continues to insist that his injury-stricken side won't know the measure of this division until they have played Blackburn, Fulham and Watford in the space of a month.

But don't doubt it for a minute, Big Sam's dead chuffed to be the boss of a record-breaking team and he's certainly not carping about having banked 16 points out of a possible 18 under the most trying of circumstances in the opening weeks of a season he always believed would be an uphill struggle.

"I'm pleased, in fact I'm delighted that we've broken the record," he enthused, "In fact I find it very strange that it's never been done before. It's fantastic."

Thankfully, the record books are only concerned with statistics. And just as we don't know or even care much about the quality of the achievements of those ancient 'Happy Wanderers' so future generations won't concern themselves with the quality of the victory that made history at Blundell Park on September 12 in the year 2000.

Because, apart from the fact that this was a landmark triumph, the game itself and the performance were easily forgettable - until Ricketts enhanced his reputation as the most lethal 'supersub' since David Fairclough coined the title in the all-conquering Liverpool teams of the Seventies.

Even the most generous of observers would be hard-pressed to recall Wanderers creating any other scoring chance in the 90 minutes but one chance is all this boy needs. Since missing the first three games of the season through suspension, he has come off the bench to score all five of his goals - four of them in the last eight days - and he has never looked like missing.

Unlike Steve Livingstone who, presumably, was still thinking like the centre-half he was in a previous life with the Mariners when he missed a 53rd minute sitter that would have changed the whole course of the game.

Lennie Lawrence elected not to criticise the squandering striker, waving aside the miss as "just one of those things!" He thought Livingstone and the rest of his players worked hard and played well, particularly in the first half, but he admitted "we don't have anybody up front who can change things."

How jealous he must be of Allardyce, who has a talent like Ricketts at his disposal.

"I've been saying all season that the quality of our finishing has been winning us games and that was the case again last night," the manager said, happy to repeat himself.

"We had to work hard, keep our shape and dig in to make it difficult for the opposition but the difference between the two sides was the quality of the finishing.

"It doesn't seem like Michael's ever going to miss. There was hardly another clear-cut chance in the game, apart from that one slip of ours and that miss was just the bit of luck we wanted."

The bit of bad luck they didn't want was having Mike Whitlow limp off in the first half with a groin injury that will put him back on the sidelines for another 10 to 14 days.

With Mark Fish and Gareth Farrelly ruled out of the game with ankle injuries Wanderers were forced to shuffle and reshuffle in search of a solid formation. Gudni Bergsson and Ian Marshall made sure the centre of the defence enjoyed the full benefit of their collective 69 years' experience and, while Frandsen and Franck Passi (64 years between them) anchored the midfield, Anthony Barness, John O'Kane, Bo Hansen and Leam Richardson offered the versatility to chop and change as the manager required.

Defensively they were solid; creatively they never really got going - apart from that one record-breaking moment 20 minutes from time!