QPR man on McCormack – and how Bates blocked his Leeds United move

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Clint Hill has admitted that QPR cannot afford to repeat their recent defensive lapses when they face the likes of Ross McCormack in Saturday’s game against Leeds United.

Rangers, beaten in their last three matches, will be looking to get their challenge for automatic promotion back on track this weekend.

But Hill could have his work cut out against the influential McCormack, who has scored 23 times this season.

The defender said: “I watched Leeds against Middlesbrough and saw they were strong, organised and have a bit of pace and a striker up front who can bang goals in.

“He doesn’t really pin himself on one person. He likes to get in and around the channels and just off the front. He’s a very good player.

“We’ve got to be a lot better than we have been, but we know if we get anywhere the standard we were at about a month ago then we’ll be okay.”

McCormack and Hill would have been team-mates had former QPR boss Neil Warnock got his way while in charge at Leeds in 2012.

Warnock wanted to sign Hill, who was then out of favour at Loftus Road and believed his time in west London was coming to an end.

But former Chelsea supremo Ken Bates, then Leeds chairman, was reluctant to sanction the deal.

“I did think I’d go there at one point,” Hill, 35, recalled.

“Neil wanted me to and I thought it was very, very close. I think Ken Bates had reservations about signing an old geezer, but it was very close.”

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