Darnell Furlong has praised his loan spells for helping him improve as a player – but says he is delighted to be back at QPR.

The 21-year-old has spent time at Northampton Town, Cambridge United and most recently Swindon Town, racking up almost 60 appearances along the way.

And he believes those experiences have helped him go from strength-to-strength in the 10 appearances for the Hoops since his recall from the County Ground.

Furlong, who has been at the club since he was 10, told www.qpr.co.uk: “I don’t think you can prepare for league football any other way.

“When you’re 18, your next progression is to play in the 23s, but once you are doing that regularly, you need to get out and play men’s football.

“My loan spells benefitted me massively, like they will benefit the players who are on loan at the moment.

“When I have been out on loan I’ve been completely committed to the clubs I have been on loan at, but the end goal was always to come back and play for QPR.

“To be doing that now is my dream. It’s exactly what I want.

“I remember the first time I ever pulled the shirt on with my young team-mates in the academy, it was amazing. So to be pulling it on in the Championship and fighting for real points is so special for me.”

The defender was part of the back-five unit which kept a clean sheet at Leeds United on Saturday in a 0-0 draw.

He said: “I really enjoyed it, and thought we could have nicked all three points which would have been even better, but we were happy with the point.

“It’s a tough place to go and when you look at where they are in the league, and what they are trying to do, it’s a good result for us.

“They didn’t have a shot on target. We’ve caused them problems in their box and proved a threat against one of the top teams in the league.

“If we’re keeping clean sheets we are giving ourselves a much better chance of winning the games.

“We know we can concede and still win, but keeping those clean sheets is always a target for us.”

That clean sheet was only the club’s second in five months but they will be confident of improving on that when they host rock-bottom Rotherham United on Saturday.

The Millers have not scored in four of the last five games and are without a win in 11.