THERE were as many foreign coaches at Selhurst Park as one would normally expect to find waiting outside the Louvre on a cold Saturday in mid December. But what they saw was about as relevant to the footballing arts as Rolf Harris is to Leonardo da Vinci.

Denmark manager Bo Johansson had brought along his entire coaching staff to study thee wonders of Wimbledon. Their afternoon might have been better spent Christmas shopping at the local Marks and Sparks.

At least Norway's Egil Olsen, who is forever insisting that English teams should not try to ape the Continentals, must have felt his case had been strengthened by what he saw. But do Norway play like Wimbledon or is it the' other way round?

Either way Olsen's guru, Charles Hughes, would have found evidence to support his long-held belief that the direct approach is the only realistic route to success. Wimbledon emerged from a match of mind-numbing mediocrity with three points sea cured by a late goal from a substitute Dean Holdsworth.

The victory extended their unbeaten run to 19 games. Liverpool's 5-1 win at Anfield might have removed Joe Kinnear's team from second place on goal difference, but the thought that Wimbledon could be one of England's two representatives in the Champions League next season refuses to go away.

Certainly Wimbledon would be ill-judged soley on Saturday's performance. And even then the defenders showed how important they have become to maintaining the run. Last season Wimbledon kept nine clean sheets in 48 games, a figure which they've now achieved in 22.

And yet, it needed Holdsworth, who replaced Efan Ekoku after 75 minutes, to spare Selhurst an afternoon of nothing-nothingness.

Five minutes from the end' Peter Fear's attempt to pump the ball high into the penalty area, would probably have flown in a familiar are to the head of Colin Hen dry had it not taken a deflection off Tim throwing the defence. Neil Ardley then, headed the ball square to Holdsworth, who drove it smartly past Shay Given.