Ex-Leeds United boss confirms departure from Championship club after securing ‘greatest achievement’

Ex-Leeds United manager Neil Warnock has confirmed he will leave Huddersfield Town at the end of the season after securing Championship survival with the Terriers.

Danny Ward scored the only goal of the game in a victory over Premier League-bound Sheffield United to clinch safety on Thursday night.

Town were languishing in the relegation zone upon Warnock’s arrival but have moved 18th in the table and six points clear of the bottom three with a game to spare.

Warnock, who has managed a number of clubs across the Premier League and EFL which included a spell at Leeds between February 2012 and April 2013, came out of retirement to take charge of free-falling Huddersfield until the end of the campaign.

He has turned the fortunes around at the West Yorkshire club with his last game coming against Reading - who were relegated on Thursday with Huddersfield’s win - on Monday.

Warnock had previously said keeping Huddersfield up would be “greatest achievement” despite a career which has included eight promotions.

“I’ll remember tonight for the rest of my life,” said Warnock. “It’s a massive achievement and I couldn’t be any prouder.

“When (Warnock’s assistant) Ronnie Jepson phoned me, he said ‘are you sure? This is the worst team I have seen’. Everyone has worked their socks off for me but I can’t do another 10 months of this. The job is done for me.

“I have great memories and didn’t want to leave having gone down. You can imagine relegation, jobs at stake. We looked nervous, not wanting to have a second touch. At half-time we told them what we’d been doing the last nine games and we deserved it in the end.

“Danny scored one like that for Cardiff at Forest, I said we could do with another one of those. He’s an unsung hero.

“It’s been an amazing ride. I think tonight could have converted youngsters for years to come.

“I remember watching Joe Shaw for (Sheffield) United one night and it did me. I had to be an United-ite and there will be Town fans like that tonight.”

Leeds will be hoping for similar fortunes under Sam Allardyce in their final four games as they seek to avoid joining the Terriers in the Championship next term.

A number of Warnock’s games came against sides in the top half, with Allardyce facing a similar challenge as the Whites take on Man City, Newcastle, West Ham and Tottenham in their final matches.

Speaking of Allardyce’s appointment, Warnock said earlier this week: “I think sometimes you just need [someone] level-headed really. It didn’t surprise me with Leeds if I’m honest. I thought if I’d got a point on Thursday night they might have rung me on Friday!

“But joking apart, I think it needed a change. I look around everywhere and there’s so much at stake for these teams, isn’t there, financially and everything really. The hierarchy at these clubs make the decisions now and they have to stand by it.

“It didn’t surprise me about Roy [Hodgson] doing well [at Palace] because he knows all the squad there and they’re a really exciting bunch of forward players there, so that didn’t surprise me at all.

“It’s just one of those things: they’re flavour of the month sometimes, the young managers, then the old ones come back, then it goes again to the old managers. You just have to enjoy it while you can and I’ve enjoyed every minute. We’ve had some 4-0 drubbings and things like that but it’s not deterred me from enjoying it and I’m proud of how the lads have responded really.”