Panic sackings are one thing but why are so many clubs happy to settle for unproven stand-ins? Stuart Rayner comment

Whether it be relegation or European qualification, the stakes are high and the margins so tight every point matters. A mini new manager bounce here, a tactical tweak there could make the difference.

Those without skin in the game might say certain battles are lost already, but the decision-makers disagree or they would have saved a few quid and a bit of effort by not pulling the trigger until the summer.

But what is strange is that chairman and chief executives who put so much importance on getting a failing manager out do not always seem to have the same urgency about getting a good manager in – and a proven one at that.

Neil Warnock was in his element in the Huddersfield Town press room on Monday, as always. He had just masterminded an absolute heist of a draw against a Blackburn Rovers side who could yet be in next season's Premier League.

He did it with some risky tactics. Had his team defended any deeper they would have been in the stands, and Josh Koroma was at left-back.

It is not to question Koroma's professionalism – on full display as he diligently worked back in the pouring rain – to say that asking him to do that must have been a hard sell. It is a lot easier if you have eight promotions, numerous Houdini acts and 1,600 matches under your belt.

"It's a time like that where you've glad you've had the success you've had because they look at you and think, 'He must know what he's talking about!'" smiled the 74-year-old.

Less than 24 hours earlier Roy Hodgson had been in West Yorkshire doing his bit for the old brigade as his Crystal Palace kept their nerve during a first-half battering at Elland Road and got on the bus home with a 5-1 win.

He might not be glamorous, he might not be the future, he might still have been petulantly smarting about an uncharitable comment written about him in the 1990s (no, seriously) and his "philosophy" might take Palace in the opposite direction they want to go in long-term, but he knows how to get football teams out of the holes they dig themselves into and right now that is all the Eagles care about.

Having placed such importance on staying up or getting into Europe, why risk putting your fate in the hands of someone unproven?

Every great manager was once inexperienced. Middlesbrough's Michael Carrick has deservedly been shortlisted as the Championship's manager of the year after 26 games of his first proper gig. It can work. But it is a big old risk to take after making a sacking which effectively says "This is no time for gambles.”

It takes some bottle to reappoint a manager you have already sacked and who was given the boot by Everton weeks earlier even only for a short spell, and even if his name is Frank Lampard.

Or to entrust getting Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League to Cristian Stellini, given his only previous managerial job was in Serie C.

Likewise, you need some nerve to give the most important job at a club riven by off-field issues to someone like Shaun Maloney, sacked 19 games into his only previous job.

And it is a fairly big jump from deciding Mick McCarthy and Paul Ince do not have what it takes to keep you in the Championship to asking Scott Dobie and Noel Hunt to give it a go, as Blackpool and Reading have.

This is not to say that any of them cannot be good managers or that they will fail this season but there is, to misquote Gordon Brown, a time for a novice and it is in the summer, when they have time to get to know their players and feel their way in. Or at the end of a season drifting into nothingness, when the stakes are low and mistakes less costly.

And before Huddersfield pat themselves too hard on the back, let us not forget they panicked nine games into Danny Schofield's first job (he had a game as caretaker pre-Carlos Corberan too) but were relaxed enough to appoint Mark Fotheringham, who had 10 games' less experience of management.

When points are so precious it is surprising Palace and Leicester wasted even a game before they got in been-there-and-done-it choices in Hodgson and Dean Smith respectively, given those clubs probably had a close eye on Leeds United's and Southampton's travails in landing the men they wanted for their jobs. Jesse Marsch seemed to be above Smith on Leicester's list as well as the Saints.

To all those clubs who have held their nerve when the going got tough – and surprisingly Nottingham Forest, usually run like a PlayStation game, are one (they just sacked their director of football instead) – you have my respect and I hope the rewards come your way.

To those who make panic sackings without making panic appointments: what were you thinking?