It was the milestone Ian Holloway craved. Achieved the week before Christmas, as Swindon met Grimsby and he reached 1,000 games as a manager.
“That was a proud moment I must admit,” he tells Sky Sports. “We also won and it was, ironically, against my old club [Grimsby].
“It felt good winning that game, but it was more than that. It was about realising how long I’d lasted. Maybe there will be people out there saying, we wish you haven’t lasted as long! But it is what it is. I can be marmite, I understand that.
“But I’m in a wonderful life, and I’m cramming it with all sorts of wonderful things. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions, but there’s absolutely nothing like it.”
It was a landmark that, for several years, he thought may never arrive – having resigned as Grimsby boss in 2020.
Holloway never made a secret of how badly he missed being within the game during his time away, and how driven he was – even at 62 years old – to find his way back in.
Swindon gave him the chance in October last year, and it was a rocky beginning. Failing to win any of their first five games.
“To be truthful with you it wasn’t very nice at the start at all,” Holloway reflects. “There were a couple of games that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“There was Colchester away when we were 4-0 down after about 20 minutes, and losing at home to Morecambe in what was like a blizzard. It was horrendous.
“We dropped to the bottom of the league, bottom of all four divisions in England, and it was not nice.
“There was a part of me that didn’t understand what I was seeing. I didn’t recognise my players. They changed. What was happening out there affected them, and they weren’t the people that I know.
“So I don’t even blame them. I was just like, ‘wow, why couldn’t you do what I see you do in training?’
“And I’ve told them all along that they’re much better than the league position they were in. Luckily they’ve proved me right.
“What’s great is that the same people, more or less, have pulled together, worked hard and held up high and played for this badge. For me that’s what it’s all about.”
A win over Fleetwood in early December was the catalyst, two weeks before that milestone victory over Grimsby. Swindon have shot up the division since into comfortable mid-table.
“Everybody at the club has got a smile on their face now,” Holloway says. “That’s what I wanted, and long may it continue.
“But in football you’ve never cracked it, you’ve just got to keep going. It’s all about enjoying what you do, even in the defeats. But hopefully we won’t have too many before the end of the season.”
Holloway is a football man and a manager right through to his very core. Without the day-to-day, he never feels quite the same within himself.
“Right now I can’t wait to come in every day,” he says. “I feel alive again.
“When you’ve been a football manager, and then you’re not one, your world’s totally different.
“I’ve got all these thoughts going through my head, even when I’m at home eating tea with my lovely wife.
“When I’m not in it, I don’t feel right about myself. It’s like when you try something on in a shop, you don’t know if it suits you or not until you try it on.
“So me, being back in this job, I feel normal again. I can’t thank the club enough for dusting me down and chucking me in it.”
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