"If you could guarantee going up through the play-offs you'd take it every day," Neil Warnock says - and he should know.

The man whose eight promotions is the most in English football also has the most via the play-offs.

Warnock guided Notts County (twice), Huddersfield Town and Plymouth Argyle to promotion in play-off finals at Wembley in the 1990s - a number that has never been matched by any other manager.

"It's such a great day out at Wembley," the 77-year-old tells BBC Sport as he looks back on his career in the high-stakes environment of the English Football League's (EFL) post-season.

"The memories of driving home after that, you have open-top bus rides and on the town hall steps, you name it, I think I've been everywhere," adds Warnock - who managed the last of his 1,629 games earlier this season after a three-game spell in caretaker charge at Torquay United - with a smile.

So how do you get players ready for what could be the most important set of games in their life, with the prospect of promotion tantalisingly close after a 46-game season?

Warnock had a formula for that - including getting all the players' external worries ticked off as soon as possible.

"My preparation for the four wins was very similar," he explains.

"We were two weeks away from the final and we gave the lads a few days off, then we went to the Belfry Golf Club near Birmingham and we had three days there.

"Then we came back to the training ground, we got rid of all the family ticket allocations, all the people that come on board who want tickets when you get to Wembley, so the players haven't got anything to think about in the last week.

"We did the last week as a normal week, and we stayed in the same hotel, the Hilton at London.

"We had the top floor, we could see the fans coming in, we had a team meeting at lunchtime and then the day before we managed to get into the ground.

"We had photographs and things like that to get it all out of the way for the players.

"They did a lot of things that you probably don't realise need doing. We were really on song, I thought."

Three of Warnock's play-off successes have come from being the highest-ranked side to enter the end-of-season shootout.

Notts County's victory in 1990 came after finishing third in what is now League One, while his promotions from the second tier with the Magpies 12 months later and from Division Three - now League Two - with Plymouth in 1996 followed fourth-placed finishes when the top three were promoted automatically.

In contrast, his Huddersfield Town team were the final side to make the third tier play-offs in 1995 when only the champions, Birmingham City, went straight up.

"I remember we (Notts County) went to Bolton Wanderers and we were 18 points in front of them," Warnock says of his first-ever play-off match 36 years ago.

"It was a horrible day, chucking it down with rain, they got a penalty, I'm losing 1-0, the rain's pouring down my face, and I'm thinking 'what are we doing here when we've finished all those points above them?'.

"I don't think there's as much pressure when you finish in sixth position and you're playing the team that finished third," he adds.

"I think the pressure is always on the top sides that feel a little bit aggrieved (at missing out on automatic promotion). I just think that there's more pressure on them.

"But from a manager's point of view, you just want to get promotion. That's what you're in the game for, moments like that, and you just hope that you have the rub of the green."

The rub of the green has been something Warnock has not always had in the play-offs.

He has been sent to the stands twice, including in his only final defeat when, with a place in the top flight at stake, Sheffield United were beaten 3-0 by Wolverhampton Wanderers in Cardiff in 2003.

The Blades went into half-time 3-0 down and, after giving his views of the officiating to the referee, Steve Bennett, Warnock had to watch the second half from the stands.

Hopes of a comeback were then dashed when Michael Brown saw his penalty soon after the break saved by Wolves keeper Matt Murray.

"The referee, I can see him now, wasn't the best on the day," recalls Warnock.

"They admitted that after, but not just that, we missed a penalty.

"If we'd have scored the penalty early in the second half, I think we could have got a result there, but Michael Brown missed and so we never quite managed to."

Warnock says one of his most memorable play-off triumphs came with Plymouth Argyle in 1996 as they won promotion from what is now League Two.

"I enjoyed Plymouth because it was the first time the Green Army had been to Wembley and they were always really supportive - I remember people queuing for tickets and the talk around the town," he says.

But that victory was far from simple for the Pilgrims, who ended the season one point and one place off automatic promotion.

They lost the first leg of the semi-final 1-0 at Colchester United, before winning 3-1 at Home Park in a memorable return game that also saw him sent from the dugout - and into the stands with the Argyle fans - after a chat with the referee.

"I remember Adrian Littlejohn was going through on goal and they pulled him down, and the lad (Mark Kinsella) should have got sent off. He didn't, and then the same lad went and scored another goal and you feel hard done to," Warnock says.

"The referee came and sent me off and then apologised at the end of the game because he got it wrong - all those little things you remember.

"There's so many emotions. At Plymouth in the second leg Paul Williams scored late on - I'd never even seen him in the opponents' box until then."

Argyle went on to beat Darlington 1-0 in the final thanks to a second-half Ronnie Mauge goal - one that Warnock is still proud of to this day.

"The pleasing thing about Plymouth was that it was a set-piece that we worked on in training," he recalls.

"Mark Patterson and somebody else made a late run in the box to allow Ronnie Mauge to be free and score a great header.

"When you do score with a set-piece, from a manager's point of view, it's really pleasing."

Out of six EFL play-off campaigns, Warnock has only failed to reach the final once.

That came in 2008 when Crystal Palace were beaten by Bristol City in extra time of a dramatic semi-final of the Championship play-offs.

Having drawn Palace level on aggregate, Ben Watson then hit the post with a penalty that would have put the Eagles 3-2 up the tie.

Instead it was still level after 90 minutes of the second leg, with Lee Trundle and Michael McIndoe scoring in extra time to send the Robins to Wembley.

"That was terrible really," Warnock recalls. "They're the horrible feelings, because you knew if Ben Watson scores the penalty we win that game.

"We were dominating, and Ben's quite reliable as well and it was the thickness of a post.

"The deflation that you get, you can't really describe it.

"I felt sorry for Simon Jordan (then chairman of Crystal Palace) if I'm honest, because after that obviously the club had a few problems and that would have just eliminated any problems."

And that is the other side of the coin for those sides that do not make it - the financial cost.

Palace ended up in administration just over 18 months later and almost dropped to the third tier before coming back.

"They say it (the Championship play-off final) is the richest game in football's history and you can quite well imagine that really," thinks Warnock.

"The sorts of money that the Premier League generates - it's mega, mega, mega money."