CORNWALL CALLING AS NEIL AND HIS CITY BOYS GO WEST

NEIL WARNOCK is refusing to change his coaching habits after hitting the big time again.

Warnock has guided four different clubs – Notts County, Sheffield United, QPR, and now Cardiff – to the top flight.

But while fellow Premier League clubs head to America, Australia, the Far East and mainland Europe on pre-season jaunts, the 69-year-old has stuck to his old routine and taken his team to Cornwall for a week of training and friendlies.

When his side beat Bodmin Town 11-1 on Wednesday night it was the ninth time he had played at the ground with various clubs. He said: “I think it is just as well not to do too much travelling at this time of year. I prefer team-bonding rather than globe-trotting and having to overcome travel fatigue.

“I’ve loved Cornwall ever since I worked at Plymouth and now I’ve got a home here. Nobody seems to bang the drum for Cornwall but I’ve brought lots of my teams here in the past and it has worked for us.

“At our end-of-tour barbecue last year I told the players that I thought they were good enough to push for a place in the play-offs. I told them I had a great record at Wembley and if they could get us there then we were in with a chance of going up.

“Later on that night the captain, Sean Morrison, came up to me and asked, ‘Have you been drinking boss?’”

Quite what Morrison will say when he hears Warnock (below) tell his players later this week: “I don’t see any reason why we can’t survive” is anyone’s guess.

Warnock says he is not worried about getting the sack this season because he knows he will always get a job in the Championship.

The “seasoned, not veteran” manager conjured up a recordbreaking eighth promotion with Cardiff last season to take them back into the Premier League despite starting the season as 33-1 outsiders.

Now the Bluebirds will be battling odds of 8-11 with bookies to go down, but Warnock is not concerned about the doom surrounding his side. They may have “the smallest budget by a mile” but they are ready to give it a go.

“What’s the worst that can happen? We can be bottom at Christmas and I get the sack – but I don’t worry about that,” said Warnock. “If I get the sack here I will probably have another go in the Championship. The only reason I don’t want to get the sack is that I want to do well.

“Football is a very cut-throat business but the illness my wife Sharon suffered (she got lymphoedema after breast-cancer treatment) showed me there is much more to life than football.”