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Warnock wanted tonight's game playing in the last midweek of the season but that was ruled out by Cookson who said: "I understand the frustration, especially for the fans. It is not an ideal situation, but we do not live in an ideal world. We have to make sure the fixtures get completed in time, and often something has to give. But Crystal Palace are not the only club this has happened to."
Despite this Owen Coyle has been heaping praise on Warnock who made contact after the recent Carling Cup exit to Spurs. He said: "Neil is a fantastic manager and he has shown that consistently over a tremendous career in management.
"I have a lot of time for him and I have to say he went out of his way to ring me about a month ago and compliment the football club and the team after the Tottenham game. I picked the phone up and he just said he had enjoyed what we offered in representing the Championship.
"I thought that spoke volumes for him as a man and I am certainly in his fan club. It's always nice to receive calls like that. I think football people in general recognise when somebody is looking to do their best in such a busy schedule, it's nice to see someone take time out. It says a lot about the character of the person."
Coyle now looks forward to the game as we get back to league action following the cup defeat at Arsenal. "It is a measure of how far we have come that we are disappointed to come away from the Emirates having lost.
"But now we have ten cup finals in front of us and we want to gather as many points as possible. Sunday left us with just the Championship to focus on and this is a great challenge to look forward to, having given everything we have offered already this season.
"It's up to us to kick on now and look to capitalise on the position we are in and make sure it all counts in the end. We have not put all that hard work into the season to just give it all up. There is no point in letting it all fizzle out, so I think it's fair to say there are a very exciting couple of months ahead of us."