Neil Warnock produced almighty Cardiff City shock: View | OneFootball

Neil Warnock and Cardiff City's improbable 2017/18 promotion will live long in the memory

Highlights

Neil Warnock dared to defy the odds throughout his illustrious managerial career in the EFL, though his very finest hour was crowned on May 6, 2018.

The sun spotlighted the turf, surrounded by a sea of blue shirts and an overwhelming aura of expectation. This was Cardiff City's chance for glory.

At home to Reading on the final day of the 2017/18 Championship season, Cardiff needed to match or better Fulham's result against Birmingham City to secure automatic promotion alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers; The Bluebirds had been in an improbable race for promotion with Nuno Espírito Santo's Jorge Mendes-backed, blockbuster Portuguese army for much of the campaign.

Cardiff's 1-0 home defeat to Wolves in April - infamous for Gary Madine and Junior Hoilett's missed penalties in added time and, of course, *that* historic, never-to-be-seen-again spat between Warnock and Nuno at full-time - had seen the title-winners sail out of sight, with Fulham emerging as the most formidable threat following a remarkable run of form upon the turn of the year.

After December 16, Fulham's only defeat came on the final day. The worry, then, was not only justified but intensely palpable throughout the Cardiff City Stadium on that glorious afternoon. It all boiled down to Cardiff versus Reading.

The two sides actually ended up playing out a rather drab 0-0 draw; the encounter is not remembered so fondly for the 90 minutes of action, rather what followed it. But supporters did have goals to celebrate - three of them, in fact - as Birmingham City put Fulham to the sword in a shock 3-1 victory, prompting ecstatic and anticipated celebrations in the Welsh capital.

More than 30,000 supporters, including some before the full-time whistle was even blown, raced past stewards to coat the pitch blue, herald their heroes and bask in the euphoria of securing a Premier League return following a four-year absence and against all expectations.

The afternoon was the culmination of shrewd recruitment, trials and tribulations, experience and expertise and, perhaps above all else, an indestructible sense of unity and togetherness which saw Cardiff compensate for their deficit in quality and financial muscle compared to their promotion-chasing compatriots.

The story of Neil Warnock's stunning 2017/18 Cardiff City promotion

If you dare to rewind to not even two years before Cardiff's crowning against the Royals, the prospect of relegation to League One had appeared a distinct possibility.

A chastening 2-0 defeat away at newly-promoted Burton Albion at the beginning of October had sought to conclude Paul Trollope's brief yet disastrous reign in charge, but it also stapled Cardiff to 23rd-place. Granted, Warnock's arrival only came after 11 matches, though any Cardiff supporter unfortunate enough to have sat through the opening stages of that season will tell you in no uncertain terms just how destined they had felt to succumb to the drop.

As coincidence would have it, victory at the Pirelli Stadium on the opening day of 17/18 proved the catalyst for Cardiff to initiate their unfathomable ascension back to the top-flight. Beating a team who had only been promoted to the English Football League for the first time in 2008 and were later relegated in their second Championship season did not make anybody stand up and take notice.

Their 3-0 win over Aston Villa later that month, however, most certainly did. It was at that very moment that Cardiff - and the rest of the division, for that matter - had begun to realise their promotion credentials. John Terry, among the finest defenders of his generation, was unable to handle Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who scored a brace to inspire the victory over the Villans and would prove a major force in Warnock's side for the duration of the season.

Cardiff's summer signings, of which Mendez-Laing had been one, were hardly symbolic of a promotion-chasing team. Many had been cast-offs, broken toys if you will, while Wolves brought in the likes of Diogo Jota and the youngest UEFA Champions League captain in history in Ruben Neves from Porto. The two Portuguese arrivals in particular represented quite simply incredible signings for the Championship and a sign of what Cardiff were up against, making their eventual feat all the more impressive.

Indeed, Mendez-Laing directed yet another statement-sending victory at the hands of a promotion rival by scoring the decisive goal as Cardiff ran out 2-1 winners away to Wolves later in August. Led by increasing momentum, Cardiff proceeded to lose just three times in as many months from September to December, a rich vein of form which included notable victories over Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Norwich City.

Warnock's side did hit a significant snag after enduring a four-match losing run throughout the hectic festive period, in no small part due to the injury of captain Sean Morrison, but a rampant 4-0 victory at home to Sunderland in January underlined Cardiff's resilience and bounce-back ability, getting them right back on track. They didn't lose again until Wolves came to town in April.

Given the nature and context of the result, morale understandably took a dip as Cardiff lost 1-0 at Villa days later, with Jack Grealish's emphatic late strike ensuring some rather heightened nerves back in South Wales amid a daunting final run-in and the presence of Slaviska Jokanovic's seemingly-invincible side - powered by one such Aleksandar Mitrovic - breathing down their necks at an ever-quickening pace.

The 'snowgate' fiasco with Derby County requires little introduction to Cardiff supporters, not least those who had embarked on the three-hour trip to Pride Park before the match was called off.

It was indeed somewhat convenient that Gary Rowett had a lengthy list of key absentees to reel off and, of course, Pride Park was completely coated in snow - as the fans who stood outside the ground that morning will attest to. Cardiff's own rightful frustration with the matter meant for a tasty return to the East Midlands two weeks after the Villa defeat just down the road, but it was yet more misery for the Bluebirds at Derby as they capitulated to a 3-1 defeat.

At the time, you simply had to wonder if they had the requisite quality and fortune to revitalise their bid for automatic promotion with just two games to go, but mounting fears were put to rest away at Hull City four days later when Cardiff's very own Captain Fantastic leaped like a salmon to head in a Joe Ralls free-kick, before running the length of the pitch and deftly teasing and chopping past future-Bluebird Harry Wilson to double the advantage and all-but-guarantee a miraculous return to the domestic game's premiere podium, with just Reading left to play.

In truth, the hard work was virtually done by the time Reading rocked up the following week. Cardiff simply had to hold their nerve given Fulham's own collapse at the final hurdle, and that they did.

Neil Warnock deserves the plaudits for Cardiff City's 17/18 promotion

To put the improbability of Cardiff's promotion into perspective, let's take a look at the talent at the disposal of their other promotion compatriots that year.

Both Neves and Jota were operating at a different class to the second-tier and have since blossomed into genuine stars at the highest level. Wolves also had two of the finest marauding full-backs in the division in Barry Douglas and Matt Doherty, the latter of whom has gone on to represent Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid. Ivan Cavaleiro and Helder Costa were fantastic wingers for the level back then, too.

Fulham's season was revitalised by the arrival of Mitrovic, who scored 12 times from 20 matches and later hit 43 in one year in the division at Craven Cottage. He notched 40 goals for Al Hilal last term, playing alongside the likes of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Kalidou Koulibaly, ex-Barcelona winger Malcom and, ironically, Neves himself. Just seventeen years old at the time, Ryan Sessengon was quite possibly the best young player in the country that season and made 24 goal contributions down the left-hand side.

Villa, who lost to Fulham in the eventual play-off final, had future Manchester City treble-winner and England superstar Jack Grealish pulling the strings. Supplemented by proven second-tier class in Robert Snodgrass, Lewis Grabban, Albert Adomah and Conor Hourihane, Villa too had a star-studded side that still fell short of catching Warnock's misfits. Even Middlesbrough, though not a direct automatic promotion rival, had the likes of Stewart Downing, Patrick Bamford and speed demon Adama Traoré - who was breathtaking for much of the campaign - to call upon.

Cardiff's line-up is not a poor strongest side under any circumstances, and they were defensively imperious in particular, but is it one that, on its own, had any right to really finish second in the Championship given the competition? Probably not. Play-offs at a push, perhaps, but for that squad to have gone up automatically is nothing short of miraculous and for that, Warnock deserves the flowers.

In contrast to Warnock's promotion-winning, Adel Taarabt-led QPR side years previously, this Cardiff team did not depend upon the premium of individual brilliance. Summer signing Lee Tomlin was poised to be Warnock's Taarabt mk2, but they never saw eye-to-eye, although the mercurial midfielder later had his time in the spotlight under Neil Harris.

Former Blackburn Rovers and QPR winger Junior Hoilett was perhaps the pick of the bunch from an attacking perspective by contributing nine goals and 11 assists. Mendez-Laing was sensational beyond isolated statistical analysis and Kenneth Zohore and Callum Paterson both weighed in with their fair share of goals too, but no Cardiff player scored more than 10 times in the league.

They were the epitome of what Warnock has always wanted his sides to be; diligent, structured and organised, difficult to break down and a nightmare to play against and quick, cunning and incisive when required in the final third. They ranked third-from-bottom in terms of average possession and no team made less accurate passes per match than their 165. Fulham and Wolves each made more than twice as many. Go figure.

Their success was not the byproduct of fluke - consistency over a 46-game marathon cancels as much - nor was it star quality. Instead, it was the byproduct of having a manager skilled and qualified in the art of leading promotion who galvanised the squad and the entire city when they needed it most, had a clearly-defined structure and style and placed the utmost faith in his troops while getting them to run through brick walls for him each week.

In this bankrolled, increasingly-progressive stylistic day and age, you will never again see a side achieve promotion on the shoestring budget that Warnock had, playing such a direct brand of football and against immensely stiff competition. Ipswich Town may have performed their own miracle last term, but Kieran McKenna has never been short of financial backing at Portman Road and, to his credit of course, is tactically shrewd enough to have outsmarted and outplayed his team's opponents. Warnock was not. However, he knew how to get the very best out of his limited resources and make the going difficult for whoever Cardiff found up against.

That in itself is its own miracle. Cardiff's group of players that year - particularly Hoilett, Mendez-Laing, Bamba, Morrison and Ralls - have all been elected into Bluebirds folklore, but a special place will always be reserved for Warnock after he masterminded something that never should have happened in the first place.