IT hasn't been the best of times for football manager Neil Warnock lately — but a visit to West Devon must have restored his faith in human nature, writes Colin Brent.

Mr Warnock was sacked as manager of Premier League Queen's Park Rangers last week, much to the anger of many fans of the club he had steered from the lower reaches of the Championship to the top flight of football.

In his regular column in the sports section of Saturday's Independent newspaper, he described the West London club's decision to dispense with his services as a week in which his world turned upside down.

The 63-year-old, who lives in east Cornwall, doesn't confine himself to writing about football — the warmth and humour of family life also feature in his column.

So in a week that unexpecedly found him with more leisure time, Mr Warnock wrote last Saturday of how he, his wife, Sharon, and their son and daughter went walking on Bodmin Moor then headed into Tavistock.

While parking the car, Mrs Warnock overheard two elderly ladies who were 10p short for the meter — Mr Warnock gave them 10p, much to their delight.

The family returned to their car 20 minutes late with no sign of a traffic warden.

Mr Warnock wrote: 'It was quite a change after being in London. Last week Sharon got a ticket for being three minutes over time in Richmond. You don't get that in Devon and Cornwall.'

Perhaps the traffic warden decided to cut him some slack. Fans of QPR may mutter that they wish the club's owner Tony Fernandes had done the same.