FOOTBALL legend Neil Warnock is backing his local club Tavistock to win promotion this year after closing the door on a 41-year career which saw him win a record eight of them in English football.

Former Plymouth Argyle boss Warnock, who has a home in the area, has close links with the Lambs, whose chairman Paul Stapleton — also once a director at Home Park — is a friend.

Warnock, who left his latest club Middlesbrough in November, always made sure he helped out Tavistock by bringing whichever league club he was managing at the time to West Devon for a pre-season friendly.

That appreciation of how lower-level clubs can benefit from a pre-season bumper gate is typical of a player who landed his first full-time managerial role with Northern Premier League side Gainsborough Trinity in 1981.

The 73-year-old has been involved with 16 different clubs, the most pertinent one for local football fans from 1995-97 when he took Plymouth Argyle to the then second division via a dramatic Wembley play-off.

Warnock said he felt, following his departure from the Boro, that he felt it was time to call it a day.

He said: ‘I suppose it is the end of an era, but it will give me a chance to have a good look around the area where I live - I love Tavistock - which I’ve never been able to do before. I’ll be out with my dogs, the kids are close as well and there’s so many other things to do.’

Tavistock FC are in the promotion driving seat in the Western League, where the Lambs are pushing for promotion to the Southern League after just failing to make it over the past two Covid-interrupted seasons.

Warnock believes the Lambs can do it, although he ruled out getting involved with running the club.

He said: ‘I want to go to a game (at Tavistock) in the next few weeks and I think they are in a good position.

‘I’m absolutely pleased to see how they are getting on and I think they’ve got a really good chance of going up.

‘Unfortunately, I won’t be getting involved because I just won’t have the time to do it.’