Neil Warnock has backed his old club Cardiff City to win promotion through the play-offs - at the expense of Nottingham Forest.
The Reds and the Bluebirds currently occupy fifth and sixth places in the Championship table respectively, heading into the final two games of the season.
Sabri Lamouchi’s side missed the chance to guarantee a top six finish when they drew with Swansea City on Wednesday night, and will be eager to get the job done at Barnsley this weekend.
But Warnock, who is now manager of Middlesbrough, believes it is Cardiff who will earn a place in the Premier League via the end of term showdown, with only one team capable of stopping them.
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"I said when I left I still thought they'd get into the play-offs," the former Notts County boss told WalesOnline. "When they let in a few goals in the next few games everyone must have thought, 'he's in cloud cuckoo land'.
“But I always felt the second half of the season would be more favourable for Cardiff in terms of the fixtures to come. They grind teams down and were always going to pick up more points as the season wore on.
“Well, they're in the top six and I think they'll go up. I really hope they do, that group of players.
“I can only see Brentford perhaps beating them over two legs, but I don't see any other team doing it.
“Cardiff have to hope Brentford go up automatically. If so, I'd be confident about them overcoming West Brom, Fulham or Nottingham Forest. I really would.
“There's momentum with Cardiff, they're so hard to beat. I don't think those other teams can stop them.”
Forest toppled City on their own patch back in February, when Tiago Silva scored the only goal of the game.
But Lamouchi’s men lost the reverse fixture by the same scoreline in November, shortly after Warnock had left Cardiff.
"They've got a good record against the sides above in the table and there's a reason for that - when you have players of Cardiff's quality, attitudes don't change, no matter who you are playing,” Warnock added. “You don't get ups and downs with that squad there.
"Junior Hoilett is a manager's dream, always an eight or nine out of ten. Never a six. Joe Ralls is the same for a manager, Sean Morrison too. Either goalkeeper, Alex Smithies or Neil Etheridge. You just know before a ball is kicked what the players in that team are going to do. That's a great position to be in as a manager."
