What Neil Warnock said about Sheffield Wednesday and Tony Pulis ahead of Middlesbrough's trip to Hillsborough

Boro are preparing for back-to-back away games against the Championship’s bottom two sides in Wednesday and Wycombe, yet Warnock isn’t taking the fixtures lightly.

Wednesday are now managed by former Middlesbrough boss Tony Pulis, a manager Warnock has come up against several times in the past.

“You don’t get as much success as what Tony has had without having a formula so you can’t knock it,” said Warnock ahead of the match.

“It’s easy to criticise but he’s done it over a long period and I think he’ll get them out of the bottom three before the end of the season.

“Sheffield Wednesday is more of a derby for me from when I’ve been at United.”

Warnock spent eight years at Sheffield United and has received stick from the Wednesday supporters throughout his career.

Yet the Boro boss says it’s a shame there won’t be any fans in the stadium when he returns to Sheffield this time around.

“It’s better when there’s fans there, I do enjoy the banter there with Wednesdayites, I’ve always enjoyed that over the years,” added Warnock.

“It’s great driving up to Hillsborough, that brings back memories from when I was a kid. My first game watching in Sheffield was a Sheffield Wednesday game under floodlights.”

Warnock also believes his side struggled to cope with the physical tests posed by Stoke and Preston during defeats earlier this month.

The Boro boss is expecting similar challenges this week against two teams fighting for their Championship status.

"I think the physical aspect at Stoke did us really and we couldn’t quite break them down,” added Warnock.

“I think it will be very difficult to break them down tomorrow and we have to try and make sure we are on our toes at the back and try to break them down.

“They are both difficult games and Wednesday are a Premier League club really so you are not going to get an easy run there.”

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