NEIL WARNOCK hopes to be handing out the lessons in his 'old school' scrap with Tony Pulis.

The Cardiff manager is predicting an open encounter on Saturday as two of British football's most experienced managers prepare to go head to head for the latest time.

Middlesbrough travel to Pulis' native South Wales knowing that defeat would leave them 13 points behind Warnock's fourth-place side and all but end their slender hopes of securing an automatic return to the Premier League via the top two.

A play-off place remains a far more realistic goal, with ninth-place Boro currently four points behind Bristol City in sixth going into the final 15 games of what has been an up and down campaign for the Teessiders back in the second tier.

Warnock expects Middlesbrough to go all out for the win in a bid to make up for the 1-0 reverse to the Bluebirds at the Riverside Stadium in October, as the 69-year-old aims to complete a league double over his old adversary.

The veteran pair have racked-up approaching 2500 games in charge - 60-year-old Pulis more than 1050, and the Yorkshireman in excess of 1,400 - and boast some 55-years' combined service in management spanning 22 clubs.

Warnock's promotion-chasing side have been the surprise package of the Championship campaign, and he said: "We're in a run of tough games at the moment, and it's another difficult one on Saturday. It will be a different kind of challenge to some of those we've faced at home this season because Middlesbrough have a lot of good players and they will come here to try and win."

The Teessiders had won three on the bounce away from home before the single-goal defeat at Norwich City at the start of February. Cardiff are on a five-game unbeaten run, and Warnock hopes that momentum will help to boost the atmosphere on Saturday at a venue where Middlesbrough lost by the only goal on their most recent visit in October 2015.

He added: "Our fans have been magnificent this season and I hope we get another good turnout this weekend because they're always good games against Boro.

"We're looking forward to the run-in and we've just got to make sure that we enjoy the moment because not many people gave us a chance of being where we are in the table right now."