Steve Coppell will oversee his 1000th game as a manager tonight but joked that he hated the job so much at first there were days he would rather have gone to prison instead of training at Crystal Palace.

The former Manchester United midfielder became the youngest ever manager in the Football League when he was appointed by Palace in 1984.

Coppell, then 28, admitted the pressures of the job got to him and said: "In my first season at Palace we ended up finishing seventh from bottom and that was the highest we had been all season. There were various times when I would have been very happy to go to prison rather than drive to the training ground.

"When your team's losing and you don't have any answers and people are expecting you to come up with answers it can be very, very lonely indeed."

However, Coppell stuck it out and went on to guide Palace to two promotions to the top flight, their highest ever finish, 3rd in the Premier League, and an FA Cup Final.

Coppell is now at Reading, who he took into the Premier League for the first time in their history before they were relegated last season.

Tonight, they go to Doncaster where Coppell says he will be in no mood to celebrate his milestone if they fail to get their promotion bid back on track.

"I'm joining a very limited club and am proud to be doing so," Coppell said of the landmark. "I suppose I must have done something right but whatever I was doing right I'm not doing it at the moment.

"A manager's longevity depends on results so if I don't liven up I'm fully aware of the consequences."