Town boss Mick McCarthy says the death of long-serving training ground caretaker and academy kitman Dick Parker has saddened everyone at the club.

The 67-year-old. who had worked for Town for 20 years, suffered a heart attack on Saturday while the Blues were away at Middlesbrough with McCarthy learning the sad news in the run-up to the match.

“We found out just after the team meeting at 1.15 at Middlesbrough,” he said. “I took my phone out of my pocket to look at the time and I saw a missed call from Dick Parker.

“I though the soppy old sod has either sat on his phone and rung me or there’s something wrong.

“I thought, ‘This is just a bum call, he’s just sat on it and it’s rung me’ so I rang the number back with a view to giving out to him, ‘What you doing? Ringing me at this time’, knowing full well he’d have said, ‘Sorry gaffer’.

“And anyway it was his son and he told me and it was very, very sad, very tearful actually. And when I told the players on the bus, I had to tell them because Ken Goody and James Pullen, the kitmen, knew and it was going to get out, so I thought it was better to tell them all together.

“Very, very sad, everybody. I say they all liked him, they all loved him. He was a big character around the place and the kitman is very much the butt of the jokes because he doesn’t give any kit out. He’s the kitman but he doesn’t give any kit out, doesn’t want to give any kit out.

“He was a much-loved character. There are two blue seats at the dining table, [goalkeeper-coach] Mally [Webster] sits in one and Dick sits in the other and I don’t think there’ll be anybody in that for a while.”

Is he someone who has become a friend over McCarthy’s five years at the club? “For sure, he’s been a big part of my life here at Ipswich.

“There are some mornings I’d get up and I’m awake and I know he’s in at half-past five. I once came in here at half-five to go in the gym and do a bit of work and he didn’t get here until 20 past six.

“It was still dark and while he was opening the gates I shouted, ‘Oi, where have you been?’. He thought he was going to get mugged, I think!

“We’ve had that really lovely relationship. Somebody asked me when I came here, ‘What does Dick Parker do?’ when they were doing something like a time and motion study when I’d just walked in the door.

“I said, ‘I don’t know what his job title is but come and follow him round from half-five to half-five’ because that’s what he was doing. He was just terrific. Nothing was too much, he’d always do whatever you asked and everybody’s really missed him.

“We had our Christmas lunch yesterday and he wasn’t there. That’s quite poignant in itself and I think anybody who was asked would say exactly the same. It’s just that he’s a member of my staff.

“There are some really sad ones, Jane and Debs who do the kit, who were with him all the time, and Alex, who is one of the security. They’ve known him for 20 years. It was such a shock.

“My sincere condolences go out to his family because it must be a terrible way to lose somebody.”

First-team kitman and former keeper Pullen has called on fans to hold a minute’s applause in the 67th minute of Saturday’s match against Reading.

“I know James Pullen has been instrumental in that because he worked with him all the time” the Blues boss added.

“It will be a nice touch and I think it’s nice that he can be remembered fondly and in a nice way and that his family are going to be there.

“There’s not really much you can say, it’s really saddened all of us. So let’s hope we can have a good performance, take it the other way and have a positive out of it. Wherever he is, he’ll be supporting us as always because he always did.”

Photo: ITFC

Seasider added 17:58 - Dec 15 Di it for Dick tomorrow lads !
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midastouch added 09:17 - Dec 16 I remember this game well when Dale Roberts had just passed away... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/feb/10/match.sport9 Be lovely if the team could pull something like this off for Dick and his bereaving family. I went to that Sheff Utd game and I was actually thinking of going when we were 2 down, especially given we were down to 10 men too! I was mulling it over and deciding if to make an early exit just as we got one back and I thought to myself I should stay as we might still be able to nick a point, and would you believe it we came back and won! And I remember another game around that sort of time which was almost identical. It was against Plymouth. 2 down at half time and a man down, and we fought back to win 3-2 in the second half, those were 2 absolutely cracking matches where I felt properly entertained! The Plymouth game was extra satisfying as I was sat in the South Stand with my friend who supports Plymouth and he was rubbing it in half time. And there was a group of school kids near us that were saying Ipswich were rubbish at the end of the first half but they soon changed their tune in the 2nd half! Anyway, sincerely hope the team can send Dick off into the afterlife today with 3 magical points! COYB :-)

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