Mrs Warnock’s dream the cause of Wolves’ pain

An FA Cup fourth-round replay against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in 2010 saw Danny Butterfield, a right-back by trade, play up front and score a perfect six-minute hat-trick to knock Wolves out.

He first found the net in the 62nd minute and, by the 68th, he had broken the record for the Eagles’ fastest-ever treble to seal a 3-1 victory.

Now, former Palace man Darren Ambrose has revealed the decision to play Butterfield as a striker against Mick McCarthy’s men was because Warnock’s wife, Sharon, had dreamt the night before that his right-back would score the winner.

And with the hosts short of options in attack, he went with it.

Ambrose recalled Warnock’s unique approach as he said on TalkSPORT: “We were playing Wolves in the FA Cup. We’d got a draw away and then played them at home.

“We got in, all sat down, and Neil said ‘right, my wife Sharon, she’s had a dream last night’.

“No-one really laughed as that was what he was like.

“He said ‘she dreamt my right-back scores the winning goal today’.

“We were like OK, so he said ‘Danny Butterfield, you’re playing up front’. He weren’t even the right-back at the time. He was more of a fringe player as Nathaniel Clyne was playing.

“We all started laughing but he was like ‘no, I’m being serious’.

“I was taking kick-off with him and even then, I was looking over to the bench and thinking ‘gaffer, this is a joke, put him back to right-back’.

“I think about 12 minutes later, he had a perfect hat-trick. We won the game 3-1 – left, right, header.”

Butterfield had previously only scored seven goals across eight years at Palace.

His first against Wolves saw him head in from point-blank range while the second was a sliding finish with his right foot and the third a left-footed half-volley.

“Honestly, every game after that, all the fringe players were going ‘gaffer, did Sharon have a dream last night?,” added Ambrose. “The guy was insane. He was old school.”