Neil Warnock has described Junior Hoilett as a “gem” after the midfielder’s growing influence at Cardiff City was underlined with his first goal for the club.

Hoilett scored in the Bluebirds’ 3-2 home victory over Huddersfield, a result which keeps Cardiff two points clear of the Championship relegation zone.

The Canadian international was picked up for nothing by Warnock last month as Hoilett was out of contract and without a club.

The pair had previously worked together at QPR and Warnock says: “I’m so glad that nobody snapped him up before I came to Cardiff. He’s a super lad and a gem of a boy.

“When you can get a player like that it’s very good for the squad because he can change a game in two minutes.

“It’s one of those things that as a manager you’re really proud of when you have somebody [Hoilett] like I did at QPR. I brought him in and he did brilliantly for me.

“By having Junior playing the way he is, it gives Peter Whittingham more time on the ball and we’ve got other strengths.”

First-half strikes from Sean Morrison, Hoilett and Rickie Lambert ensured it was another away day to forget for Huddersfield.

Tommy Smith pulled a goal back for Huddersfield at 2-0, while Phil Billing’s wonder-strike made it a nervy ending for Cardiff.

Warnock added: “It’s games like these that keep me out of retirement. You can’t replicate the feeling when you hear the final whistle and get a result like that. Everyone gave everything on the pitch – there were no shirkers.

“It was just a cracking Championship game today. I would’ve taken a point before the game started.”

Huddersfield boss David Wagner said: “The away form isn’t worrying. The form is good, we just need to sort out the set-pieces We’ve scored two goals, but come away with nothing? We just need to keep on working on it and hope it improves.

“We have to blame ourselves for how easy we gave the goals away. We were aware about it, we worked on it, but defending set-pieces is always about one against one and we lost too many of them.”