'IT'S A PRIVILEGE TO BE A BOSS FOR ONE DAY LET ALONE AS LONG AS I'VE DONE IT'

THERE aren’t many managers who notch up 1,000 games – and with the way modern football is going, there will be even fewer in the future.

- John Lyons

Over the last few years, Ian Holloway – stuck on 989 games after leaving Grimsby at the tail end of 2020 – must have wondered if he’d reach the landmark.

So when floundering Swindon Town gave him the call in late October to return to the dugout, the 61-year-old Bristolian jumped at the opportunity when others would probably have run the other way.

It was way back in 1996 when he took his first baby steps in management as player-boss of Bristol Rovers. Yesterday’s trip to Bradford was number 999 and next Saturday’s home match against, ironically, Grimsby, will take him to the magical four figures.

“It’s always been a thing that I’ve wanted to do, it’s a tremendous honour to have lasted however many decades,” he told The FLP in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s impressive 2-1 win at League One pacesetters Wycombe in the Vertu Trophy.

“It’s a privilege to have been a manager for one day let alone however many years. Every day it fills me with joy.

“Other people will say ‘he’s cr*p, he’s this and that’, but who gives a monkey’s. You’re not me, you don’t know anything about me.

“Ask my players, you can ask anybody I’ve ever managed whether I deserve to be a manager or not and you can just jog on if you don’t know me, that’s how I feel. I’m sure Neil Warnock can tell you exactly the same.

“My wife’s delighted that I’m out of her hair and we won’t have to move. She’s more than happy in her house where she lives – I’ve moved her 48 times!

“Whatever you think, whatever you say, I can’t wait to help the club as much as I can to try to climb out of where they are. It’s about winning, it’s not fun if you’re not winning – and it hasn’t been fun but hopefully we can get on a bit of a run that makes us all feel better about ourselves.