Town boss Mick McCarthy celebrates his 25th anniversary as a manager today, having been appointed at Millwall on March 18th 1992, and says he has no plans to retire quite yet.
McCarthy’s first game in charge came three days into his management career at the Den.
"Port Vale and we beat them 1-0," he quickly recalled. "I know you’ll look it up as soon as you get home!”
Had he always aspired to be a manager? "I hadn’t always wanted to be but when I went to France [where he played for Lyon] and I started to get into my 30s I started thinking more about it, what I wanted to do.
"And I came back from France pretty much because I didn’t want to be out of sight, out of mind.
"I wasn’t playing, I’d been injured, so I came back and played for Millwall for the 10 games before the World Cup in 1990.
"That was a conscious decision to come back and make sure I was around and take my badges when I came back, and that’s what I did. But I got the manager’s job before I’d done my badges.”
McCarthy, then only 33, admits he was surprised to be offered the job by Lions chairman Reg Burr.
"Bruce Rioch had it and Bruce was a recognised manager, a good coach,” he reflected. "What was there left? Ten games to go?
"I’d heard whispers. I’d been asked to go and see Mr Burr and I went up on the Wednesday, if my memory serves me right, and there were rumours that Bruce was going and I was going to be offered the job.
"Taff [current Town scout Ian Evans, then a coach at Millwall] said to me ‘Do they owe you any money?’ and I said ‘They do, they owe me a signing-on fee’. He said ‘They might want to pay you up!’. That sort of changed my thoughts going up a little bit, I went up with mixed emotions.
"But anyway, thankfully I was offered the job, I had 10 games. What did we do? We won four, drew three, lost three or something and stayed in the league because we could have gone down at the time.
"I have to be honest, it was probably as much to do with Taff’s help as my own help. And the rest is history, as they say.”
Millwall finished 15th in the old Second Division that season as Town won the title under John Lyall. What advice would McCarthy, now with 25 years' experience behind him, give his 33-year-old self?
"Get a really good assistant and really good staff. Tom Walley was there, he was great. He was the youth team coach but he was just great to have around.
"Taff was brilliant, just fantastic and didn’t want my job. That’s another thing, a good assistant that wants to assist you and make the team better, help you become better but not want to be in your chair.
"Ron Howard, the chief scout, Ian McNeill. I had really good staff that I hadn’t picked but they were just really good guys, they helped me along in those first 10 games because if it had gone wrong I could have been out and I’d have been out of the club and never recovered. So, choose your assistant wisely.”
He added: "I’ve got TC [Terry Connor] now, I couldn’t ask for anybody better. The biggest compliment I can give him is that I didn’t see where the join was with Taff and he’s just been great.
"And recruitment with players, of course, is vital. Is it easier when you’ve got a lot of money? Well, a lot of people have made some really big blunders on a lot of money and I’ve had some really good ‘uns for nothing and I’ve had some bad ‘uns for nothing.”
There are obvious highlights from his 25 years: "Winning the league at Sunderland and Wolves. The Ireland games were great but certainly the World Cup in 2002 was fabulous.”
McCarthy admits this this season has been one of the toughest of his quarter century: "It has. As a manager and as a coach, whatever you want to be called, head coach or manager, when you’re at a club you actually like to get the support of people.
"And pretty much I’ve had that nailed-on for four years. The last six months that’s not been the case so much from a section of the fans.
"But I get it as well and I’m not complaining about it. They want to come and watch better football and see better results.
"But I’ve had unwavering, 100 per cent support from [owner] Marcus [Evans] to everybody in the club, who have been fabulous. That means a lot, let me tell you.”
Despite having hit the 25-year milestone and with today’s game at Cardiff his 912th as a boss he says he has no intention of bringing his career to an end, despite having said that he will consider his Town future in the summer.
"No, I’ve no thoughts of about retiring, I hope that doesn’t disappoint you!” he joked.
"I’ll have better seasons than this whether it’s here or somewhere else. And you always want better seasons. I don’t want to be firefighting, putting fires out with fans and everything else, I want to be successful.
"I’ve had probably more of that than I have the other stuff, so I don’t want to be getting to 58 and be, like I said, putting fires out everywhere. I’d like to have another few more successful seasons.”