Neil Warnock’s vibe shift and an unhappy weekend for one bunch of Royals

Shrimp creole washed down with a firefly gimlet of vodka, lime juice, kleos mastiha and mint on the rocks, followed by red-velvet cake will set you back north of $50 in Dizzy’s Club at the Lincoln Center, Manhattan. All good if you’ve a new job starting the next day, especially one that carries a healthy bonus. Only problem being your presence is requested in Huddersfield’s unhappy valley the very next afternoon. Being Neil Warnock, such an assignment presented no problem and neither was it a new job, since English football is running out of provincial outposts he hasn’t previously managed. On Thursday night, courtesy of Danny Ward’s goal, Huddersfield beat Sheffield United 1-0 to make sure at least one bunch of Royals, those associated with Reading FC, have an unhappy coronation weekend: the Terriers are staying up.

Since 16 February, when Warnock proclaimed “you’d have to be a bloody idiot to come here”, the Terriers – particularly once they hit mid-March – have chewed up the rest of the Championship relegation contenders. “I’m just chuffed to death really,” cheered Warnock on Friday, though at 74, he has no plans to stay in West Yorkshire. The farm in Cornwall, a summer theatre tour of football b@nter past and old, the ISDN connection in the cowshed that helps along his various broadcast assignments and, last but not least, his wife Sharon take precedence. But Warnock is not done with football. He just has a different career path in mind. “I can’t do 10 months of this, I’ll be back somewhere in February I’m sure,” he chirruped.

Huddersfield’s resurrection was a retread of the rescue job he performed at Rotherham in 2016, when a mere 68. That stint in South Yorkshire may soon be regarded as a pioneering experiment,