Nathan Jones wants to become Luton Town’s longest serving manager after ticking off his 250th game at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
The Welshman is already the club’s fourth in the list, having overtaken Lennie Lawrence’s 249 matches.
David Pleat holds the record, having taken charge of 609 games over his two spells, but Jones is hoping he can surpass that.
“I would like to beat the record,” he said, adding: “I don’t know how far I’ve got to go, to do that, but I would like to do that.
“If I can be here for a significant amount of time, then I would be very proud to do that. And I know if I were to do that, then we would’ve been successful.
“I love my job here, I love what we have. All my key relationships here, throughout the club, are very good ones. Very productive, very sane and really professional. I like that and I’ve got a lot of good friends.
“I hope that I’m here for a long time and I can continue to move forward.”
Should he see out the current Championship campaign, Jones would jump up another place, by overtaking Harry Haslam’s 275 games in charge, before a significant increase to surpass second longest serving boss Dally Duncan’s 514 games.
Jones said: “If I can manage to double it then I’ll be very very pleased. If I can get anywhere near (500 games) as a manager, I know I would’ve done something right and I hope I can do that with this club.”
His 250th game – a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest including a missed penalty from Elijah Adebayo – might not live long in the memory, among the many successes since he first took the job in 2016, but asked for his highlights, Jones pointed to the Great Escape at the start of his second spell.
“Real highs, I think the Blackburn game was the one,” he said, adding: “So much hung on that. I know we beat Watford here and the fans would’ve loved that but, realistically, so much hung on the Blackburn result and that we stayed in the division.
“From being a year ahead of schedule, we would’ve actually been a year behind if we’d have got relegated.
“It just typified what the club is all about. When I came back in, I got a lot of credit for doing that, but the players and everyone that had been here deserved more than I did. So, they were big big things.
“But a lot of being a manager is not euphoria, it’s relief. So when fans go mental and berserk, sometimes that’s my calmest moment.
“But there have been so many. We’ve had some real good results. I always enjoy celebrated with the fans. Leyton Orient away, was one of the first ones. Wycombe when we scored in 90 plus 10. They’re really great moments, but we’ve had so many of those. Most of them have come at the Kenny as well.”
Jones highlighted the 3-1 League Cup win over Aston Villa, and an “exhilarating” second half in the 5-0 away win at Swindon, plus the Notts County away day when promotion to League One was celebrated in front of a wall of orange that took over the main stand at Meadow Lane.
But the Town chief also admitted that a lot of his highlights were away from the match day chaos.
“There were so many good times, and then there’s the every day stuff, it’s the biggest thing as a manager,’ said Jones.
“Me and my wife have an argument quite often. She thinks that I do it for the adulation and I don’t. It’s not why I do it. I do it for the every day things.
“When we get a win, it’s not the adulation that’s the massive thing. Something clicks in the back of my mind and for a week I can just work sanely, because we’ve just had a good win.
“It’s a crazy thing feeling when you’re a manager. There’s a lot of relief when you’re a manager, and not just euphoria. There are some euphoric moments, but also the real good times where you can just work sanely, and that’s why I love being at this football club, because the key relationships I’ve got are really good, sane, productive, challenging ones. That’s one of the best things you can have as a manager.”
