' NEIL WARNOCKS BIGGEST GAME IN 12 YEARS '

' NEIL WARNOCKS BIGGEST GAME IN 12 YEARS '



Why Cardiff City v West Ham United is Neil Warnock's biggest game in 12 years


By Dominic Booth


Thursday 7th March 2019


The magnitude of Cardiff City's clash with West Ham United this weekend will not be lost on Neil Warnock.

The veteran manager has faced some pretty big games during his two-and-a-half years in charge of the Bluebirds: Championship promotion-deciders, relegation six-pointers.

And some huge ones in charge of clubs like Leeds United, Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers in the past decade or so.

But after unarguably the most difficult two-week period of his Cardiff tenure, Warnock will know Saturday's game against West Ham ranks not just as his most important in charge of the Bluebirds, but perhaps of any match he has overseen in more than a decade.

In fact you probably have to go back to May 13th 2007 and a Sheffield United relegation play-off with Wigan Athletic to find a game managed by Warnock which held such significance.

An exaggeration? No. If Saturday is not exactly make-or-break for Warnock's Bluebirds, it will go a huge way towards defining their Premier League fate.

Beating West Ham is paramount to the club's season, heck, their entire future. It would also stop in their tracks the murmurs of discontent that have begun from some fans about Warnock, too.

Warnock himself has admitted that keeping Cardiff in the top flight would be his 'biggest achievement' in football.




If he's to do it, this game takes on gigantic proportions.

Not just because of the three chastening defeats that have come hot on the heels of each other; not just the perilous position Cardiff now occupy in the Premier League table; not just the claims from pundits like Danny Gabbidon and our own Nathan Blake about a 'splintered' dressing room spirit.

It's because fundamental elements of Warnock's regime are under siege.

Most worryingly, for the first time since his October 2016 appointment, there have even been some calls for Warnock to be sacked.

It should be emphasised the vast majority of Cardiff fans are still firmly behind the manager.

But, from a vocal minority or not, those whisperings of discontent have begun.

As foolish as they are in the circumstances, they resonate with Warnock. He needs to beat West Ham to nip that in the bud.

Warnock is no fool and is under no illusions about the size of his current task.

He will compare the run-in Cardiff are now facing, to the 2006/07 season climax in which his Sheffield United side were embroiled in a fierce relegation scrap.

The Blades' game against rivals Wigan on the final day of that campaign was enormous for Warnock — a Sheffield United fan since he was young and in that 90-minute encounter given a chance to keep them up in heroic fashion.

We all know how it ended: a 2-1 defeat and relegation for Warnock's beloved Blades on goal difference, having finished level on points with Wigan, amid a furious row with the Hammers of all clubs over Carlos Tevez's registration.




But it doesn't change how big that game was.

In the intervening years, Warnock has gone through plenty.

There was a play-off semi-final for Palace against Bristol City in 2008, an April 2011 win for his QPR side over Watford to seal promotion at Loftus Road.

Since overseeing a huge 2-1 win over Bristol City in his first game as Cardiff manager — a result which lifted the Bluebirds and gave Warnock immediate kudos with his adoring fans — there have been some really big ones.

Last season's promotion finale against Reading springs immediately to mind, so too the penultimate game of the campaign at Hull City, where Sean Morrison's double put Cardiff on the brink.

But this is different. it is Premier League football, a major step up from the Championship in terms of quality, pressure, everything.

Even this season, there have been games you felt Cardiff simply must win: they'd failed to record victory in the first eight games since returning to the Premier League before beating Fulham 4-2 ; they'd failed to win away in the top flight until a dramatic 1-0 smash-and-grab at Leicester ; they paid the perfect tribute to Emiliano Sala with a 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

But no game in Warnock's Cardiff career feels as much a 'sliding doors moment' as this one against West Ham.





It will have colossal ramifications.

Victory would lift the whole club — the whole city — and put Premier League survival firmly in their sights.

Defeat, on the other hand, will only make those questioning Warnock as manager shout louder. He's currently the second favourite among bookmakers to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post.

Rightly or wrongly, those 10/1 odds will shorten further if Cardiff are beaten by the Hammers.

More importantly, defeat would also leave Warnock's side hanging to their Premier League status by a thread, with a gaping three-week gap to ponder their downfall before meeting Chelsea at the end of March — and further seemingly impossible tasks against Man City, Liverpool and Manchester United on the horizon.

It would make for an agonising 22 days for Cardiff to wait for their next fixture, due to FA Cup and international football, particularly if rivals Southampton get something at home to Spurs and the gap at the bottom has widened further.

All things considered, it is no exaggeration to say West Ham simply is must-win for Warnock.

Pull it off, and the whole mind-set can change for the good again.

Warnock is old enough and wise enough to do it. He just has to.

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The biggest will be Brighton, Burnley, Fulham and Palace, all the others are big games but with less likelihood of us winning them. Those games against Burnley and Brighton are against direct competition at our level and are six-pointers.
West Ham are the same standard if not better than Everton and Watford, they have gone right up the table after a really bad start, if we are realistic we should expect to lose, fingers crossed for an amazing performance, but this is a hard game !!!

This is not a must win game !!!

The biggest will be Brighton, Burnley, Fulham and Palace, all the others are big games but with less likelihood of us winning them. Those games against Burnley and Brighton are against direct competition at our level and are six-pointers.
West Ham are the same standard if not better than Everton and Watford, they have gone right up the table after a really bad start, if we are realistic we should expect to lose, fingers crossed for an amazing performance, but this is a hard game !!!

This is not a must win game !!!

I agree whatever our fate it's the 4 games you mention that will ultimately decide our fate but as you say getting something from this game, maybe even Chelsea would be a massive boost.

Someone at Walesonline should explain what a relegation "Playoff" match actually involved and more importantly when they finished. Another poor article filled with hyperbole from the Booth character.

The biggest will be Brighton, Burnley, Fulham and Palace, all the others are big games but with less likelihood of us winning them. Those games against Burnley and Brighton are against direct competition at our level and are six-pointers.
West Ham are the same standard if not better than Everton and Watford, they have gone right up the table after a really bad start, if we are realistic we should expect to lose, fingers crossed for an amazing performance, but this is a hard game !!!

This is not a must win game !!!

For me we need to win this game, we can not afford another defeat or even a draw.

But Brighton,Burnley, Fulham & Palace i agree are bigger games for City

I am sure as i can be that even if City lost 10 nil on Saturday Warnock would still be our manager, in other words the nightmare would go on

I am sure as i can be that even if City lost 10 nil on Saturday Warnock would still be our manager, in other words the nightmare would go on

does Warnock have that striped jumper and hat in your nightmares ?

I am sure as i can be that even if City lost 10 nil on Saturday Warnock would still be our manager, in other words the nightmare would go on

does Warnock have that striped jumper and hat in your nightmares ?

He doesn’t have nightmares. He’s quite happy when he’s miserable and moaning. Same last year in the championship.

How on earth can it be his biggest game in 12 years? Important, very important and a win is desperately needed but there are another eight games to go after that.

But no sane person can argue its bigger than the Hull or Reading games. At Hull we knew that Fulham had won the night before and gone above us. The fans, players and Warnock all knew we had to win that day or our fate would be out of our own hands. I remember the feeling on the bus on the way home that I had just witnessed arguably the most important win in the many years I watched the City and a feeling of disbelief that we were one game away from the Premier League.

Poor journalism.

I don't know why people think that we can only win 4 games out of the 9 we could win any of these games and that's a fact its all down to the team on the day who wants it more and I hope our lads want premier league surrival than any other club

Win or lose Warnock is the man for next season.

Win or lose Warnock is the man for next season.

Absolutely spot on with what you say