LES PARRY takes his place in Tranmere’s first-team dugout for the 1001st time when Sheffield Wednesday visit Prenton Park this weekend.

The long serving physiotherapist and manager reached the millennium mark in the shortest possible time, because in more than 18 years since he first started working on the touchline, he hasn’t missed a single match.

It is a record made all the more remarkable by the fact that Parry hasn’t had so much as a day off sick at his hometown club since his debut as Rovers’ sponge man in the goalless draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in August 1993.

Remember too, that for more than a decade of his time as physio, Parry wore nothing more than a T-shirt and shorts in the dugout, even on the coldest winter days and nights.

“I did catch a cold a few times,” Parry recalled this week. “It’s how you deal with the illness. I just got on with it.

“I should have been putting myself at risk during the T-shirt and shorts days but I’ve been getting more coughs and chests since I covered up. It just shows what your mum used to say about ‘cover up or you’ll catch your death of cold’ is a load of rubbish!”

The T-shirt and shorts helped to raise Parry’s national profile long before he moved into management.

When a 1990s national fanzine ran a series of profiles on football’s tough guys entitled “He’s Well Hard, Him” Parry was number one.