NEIL Warnock might be one of football’s love them or loath them characters, but Burnley boss Sean Dyche has plenty of time for a senior statesman of the dugout who has backed him in his fledgling managerial career.

The two will come head-to-head at Selhurst Park tomorrow, and there will be plenty of mutual respect across the technical area.

Warnock voted for Dyche in the League Managers Association manager of the year poll last season, something for which the Turf Moor boss was grateful for.

“I thank him for that,” he said. “He's someone who has shown me an awful lot of respect.

“I know him a little bit and he's always spoken well of myself as a young manager and I do thank him for that because his record speaks for itself at the varying clubs he's had.”

Warnock returned to Palace for a second spell as manager on August 27, and Dyche was surprised that the 65-year-old returned to the game, having not worked since he left Leeds in April 2013.

“I thought he had chosen the time to say no that's it I'll go and enjoy the family but he's obviously got the bug again which happens in football,” said Dyche.

“It's a great game that's why we all love it and he certainly loves it. Make no mistake, there will be no love in when the whistle blows with Neil, he wants his team to perform and so do I.”

Warnock is full of admiration for the job that Dyche has done at Turf Moor, and he thinks that the Clarets could pose his team a serious threat tomorrow as both sides look for a first league win of the season.

“I kept in touch with him last year and spoke to him a few times,” said Warnock. “He was very close to getting manager of the year.

“He has signed some really good players, with George Boyd being one of those.

“It will be hard but they’re all hard at this level, it’s sometimes harder against these kind of sides than the Man City’s and Liverpool’s.”

Like Burnley, Crystal Palace were written off in the early stages of last season, but the Eagles turned it round under Tony Pulis and ended up finishing 11th in the league after losing only once in their final eight games.

Dyche is keen to play down any comparisons between the two sides, but he does think that Palace’s achievements last year show what can be achieved by newly promoted clubs.

“You can achieve things beyond possibly everyone's thoughts on what you can achieve,” he said.

“We were written off an hour after getting promoted last year. We believe in what we can do and what we can achieve and Palace did last season.”

Despite the job that Pulis did at Selhurst Park, earning himself the Premier League manager of the year award last season, the Welshman lost his job less than 48 hours before the first game of the new campaign after a falling out with co-chairman Steve Parish over transfer funds.

Palace nearly appointed Malky Mackay in his place, before the text message scandal involving Mackay and the club’s sporting director Iain Moody put an end to that, and they also interviewed Tim Sherwood for the job, before eventually returning to Warnock.

Dyche believes that the new man will have altered things, but doesn’t expect them to be much different from how they operated under Pulis.

“They're two different managers,” said Dyche, “two different types of managers so there will be differences.

“I would expect it to be not radically different but I'm sure there will be Neil's marker on the team.”

Palace benefit from vocal home support at Selhurst Park, and Dyche thinks there are similarities between the two sets of fans.

“Whenever I've been there as a player I've always thought their fans were excellent,” he said, “they always get behind the team, and I've been there when times weren't so good for them.

“They have had a few challenges along the years, it wasn't so long ago when they were close to real financial trouble and now they're in the Premier League.

“They know where they've been and they know where they are now so they are the similarities with our fans.

“Our fans will back the club through thick and thin and there have been some thin times.

“I think there fans have a reality of the club and they are a positive group but we focus on what we do on the pitch, that's our main concern.”