Football manager Neil Warnock picked teams based on his wife’s dreams – and won.
Former Crystal Palace midfielder Darren Ambrose said the blunt-talking boss turned up before an FA Cup replay against Wolves and revealed his missus Sharon had seen the club’s right-back scoring the winner in her sleep. Warnock, 73, then announced Danny Butterfield – who normally played in the defensive position – would start the match as a striker.
The rest of the team thought it was a joke – until Butterfield scored a hat-trick in just six minutes. The 2010 feat – which helped Palace win 3-1 – is still a club record for the fastest three-goal brace in its history.
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It was a rare so-called ‘perfect’ hat-trick with Butterfield, who is now 42 and works for Southampton’s academy, netting one goal with his left foot, another with his right and the third with his head.
Ambrose, 38, told talkSPORT Warnock was ‘insane’. The ex-England U21 midfielder said: “We were playing Wolves.
“He said, ‘My wife Sharon, she had a dream last night. She dreamt that my right back scores the winning goal today. So Danny Butterfield – you’re playing up front’. We all started laughing then and he was like, ‘no, I’m serious’.”
During the game Ambrose said he begged his boss to switch Butterfield to his normal position. “I think about 12 minutes later he had a perfect hat-trick, Danny Butterfield. Left, right, header. We won the game 3-1.”
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Former Sheffield United striker Paul Ifill, 42, revealed Warnock dropped him from a 2005 local derby with city rivals Wednesday based on one of Sharon’s dreams. His replacement Alan Quinn scored the only goal to win the match.
That too was an iconic moment as Quinn – who Warnock had signed from Wednesday 18 months earlier – became the first player in 112 years to score for both Sheffield teams in the derby.
Ifill tweeted: “Been telling people about his wife’s dreams for years. He once dropped me because of one of her dream the night before the Sheffield derby. He replaced me with Alan Quinn who scored the only goal. Madness.”
Warnock, who retired last year (2021) after managing 16 clubs from Premier to non-league, himself holds the record for helping secure the most promotions in English football with eight.
He previously said the only reason he took so many jobs was because he was so rotten at domestic chores Sharon, 50, kept sending him back to work to get him out of the way. Warnock has himself admitted he relied little on tactics for his success.
“Forget tactics and managers writing things down on the bench, which is a load of bull unless they’re doing their shopping list,” he once said.
“It’s 95% down to man-management – getting the best out of what you’ve got. It’s the same whether you’re running a football team or a newsagents.”
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