JUNIOR HAS GRADUATED TO BE NEIL’S SENIOR STAR

BY

CARDIFF boss

Neil Warnock is hoping the man he rescued from the

“leper colony” can keep delivering for him this season.

Junior Hoilett’s brilliant matchwinner against Wolves on Friday night not only proved the perfect 70th birthday present for his manager, but also took the Bluebirds out of the relegation zone ahead of tonight’s game at West Ham.

“Junior was in the ‘leper colony’ at QPR when I first met him in 2015. Nobody wanted to know him,” said Warnock. “I think he’d fallen out with Chris Ramsey, but when I came in, I wiped the slate clean. He was training with kids. I remember asking him why he was there. “I told him he was playing Saturday, and he was a bit surprised, and he’s never let me down. He’s not a complex character, but he needs a certain type of manager to get the best out of him.

“He has seen Kadeem

Harris come through this season and he’s not had a look in. I’d been disappointed in him and I had to get my faith in him

restored. He’s been superb in training and he came up with the goods on Friday night. That’s the way to answer the fans and it’s a goal I’ll remember for the rest of my life.” Warnock used Hoilett (below) and Victor Camarasa as wing-backs against Wolves and his experiment worked with a 2-1 win. Now he wants to build on it against the Hammers tonight and bossless Southampton in the Welsh capital at the weekend. He added: “We’ll go to Stratford as underdogs, but also top of the league in coming from behind in matches. “That shows we don’t know when to give in.”