11 December 2003
By David Lovett
DENIS
SMITH stood near a sailing lake yester day and chartered his own voyage through
1,000 games as a football manager.
Wrexham boss Smith was at the Pantyrochain hotel as chief guest at a dinner in
his honour en reaching the soccer milestone. He is only one of 10 post-war
managers to reach the 1,000 mark in the Football League. The others are Sir Matt
Busby, Alec Stock, Brian Clough, Graham Taylor, Dave Bassett, Alan Buckley,
Dario Gradi, Lenny Lawrence and Jim Smith.
Smith received a cut glass memento of his achievement from John Barnwell, chief
executive at the League Managers' Association. Barnwell said: "Our statistician
says very few, post-war, people in the Football League have managed 1,000
matches. We think Denis may possibly be the last modern manager TO reach 1,000
matches, basically because of the nature of the job."
Smith, watched by his sons Paul and Tom, said: "I ain delighted to receive this
and it will take pride of place in my new house."
Paul, 34, a purchasing manager for an Oxford-based computer company, said: "Yes,
obviously we're very proud of him over the years he has been seen us a football
manager by thousands of people, but first and foremost to us, he's our dad and
that makes him very special."
Tom, 25, a recruitment manager for an Insurance company, said: "You grew up and,
to us, dad's always keen in football. It's been his life and this is obviously a
milestone for him lo reach and we're very proud of him for achieving that."
Tom plays for North Leigh In the Hellenic premier league In Oxford. What
position? "Centre-half, of course!” he said.