Cardiff win counts for nothing now, says Hill

CLINT Hill insists there will be no complacency when QPR face lowly Hull this weekend, despite going five points clear in the Championship.

Rangers’ 2-1 victory against closest challengers Cardiff earned them a healthy lead at the summit, with an eight-point cushion over third-placed Swansea.

Yet, although Neil Warnock’s men remain unbeaten in the league with nearly half the season gone, left-back Hill stressed: “It means nothing at the moment.

“We were thoroughly relieved to get a good result against a very good Cardiff team, but we’re only 19 games into the season and we’ve got a long way to go.

“Everyone’s calm and not getting carried away with anything, although we can’t stop outside forces talking about it. We’re certainly not going to take Hull for granted, especially at home.

“Jimmy Bullard’s not playing at the moment and if Hull can manage without him, they must have a strong squad. We’ll need to go there and show again what a good team we are.”

Rangers appeared to be under pressure when they fought out a series of drawn games recently, including four in a row away from home, and were twice overtaken by Cardiff.

But Hill feels the Rs’ back-to-back home victories against Preston and then the Bluebirds have put them back on course to deal with a genuine dip in form when that does make its inevitable appearance.

“When we played away to teams like Portsmouth and Forest, they were on good runs of form and those were good draws,” said the 32-year-old defender.

“Now we’re back to winning games at home, anything we can get away from home is a bonus. If you look at any team during the season, there is a blip, a certain amount of games where things don’t go right for you.

“We’ll face that when it comes and, when you do get beaten, it’s important to bounce back straight away.”

QPR’s under-18 team take on Nottingham Forest in the FA Youth Cup first round next Tuesday at Loftus Road, kick-off 7pm.