WARNOCK: IT’S FATE WE WIN AT UNITED TO STAY UP

NO WONDER Neil Warnock still believes that a last-day miracle at Old Trafford is a possibility.

Once again this season, Cardiff looked doomed at full time. Yet events that followed mean here they are, still standing with a flicker of hope.

Fate now has it that, after they host Crystal Palace, it is at Manchester United that their survival chances could be decided. Trips to Old Trafford immediately transport Warnock back to 2007.

That was the year that West Ham broke the rules to sign striker Carlos Tevez, who scored the finalday winner against United that kept them up at the expense of Warnock’s Sheffield United, sparking a £30million legal battle.

Warnock once said, ‘I’ll never get over it’, and 12 years on, he underlined that. ‘Absolutely! We could go to Old Trafford and win on the final day of the season. It could be fate, with what happened last time with Tevez in 2007. Football is so hard to predict.’

This has been Warnock’s toughest season but it could still bring what would be his greatest achievement — staying up. The Emiliano Sala tragedy rocked the club and put all Cardiff’s football troubles into perspective, but there have been plenty of them, too. Yet they have managed to scrape together enough points to stay in the hunt until their final two games.

Against Fulham, Ryan Babel looked to have delivered the decisive blow with a stunning late winner. Then nearest rivals Brighton failed to beat Newcastle, meaning it is still not over for Cardiff.

Whatever division they are in next season, Warnock, 70 and overseeing his 1,455th game as a manager, is happy to stay.

Fulham caretaker Scott Parker is at the other end of the experience scale. His third successive win came in his eighth game as a manager. He took the chance to speak to Warnock. ‘There are always nuggets from people and I’d be stupid not to keep listening,’ he said.