By Ben Kosky GOALKEEPER Tom Heaton wants to sign a permanent deal at QPR in January – despite his lack of first-team opportunities this season. Heaton has made only two senior appearances for Rangers, both in the Carling Cup, and is returning to Mancheste

By Ben Kosky

GOALKEEPER Tom Heaton wants to sign a permanent deal at QPR in January - despite his lack of first-team opportunities this season.

Heaton has made only two senior appearances for Rangers, both in the Carling Cup, and is returning to Manchester United when his three-month loan expires later this week.

But the 23-year-old keeper, who is behind Edwin Van der Sar, Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak in the Old Trafford pecking order, plans to sound out United boss Sir Alex Ferguson about a move to Rangers in the new year.

"In an ideal world, I would have stayed down at QPR until January, but there's no loophole in the agreement - it was a three-month loan and now we can't do anything until the new year," Heaton told the Times.

"My contract at United's up in the summer and, from a personal point of view it's time to move on and start afresh, so I'm hoping to secure a permanent move in January.

"If there's a chance of that being to QPR, I'd certainly be very, very interested. I've had a couple of conversations with the manager and he's been happy with what I've done since I've been here.

"The manager's impressed me an awful lot as well and the club appear to be moving in the right direction. Every player wants to play in the Premier League and I'm no different."

Heaton performed well between the posts when called upon, helping a sluggish Rs side scrape past Accrington Stanley in the second round of the Carling Cup.

He then kept his side in the contest when Rangers made the short trip to Stamford Bridge, making eye-catching saves to foil Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole as Jim Magilton's side succumbed to Chelsea by a single goal.

But Heaton was then overlooked in favour of Radek Cerny when Rangers returned to Championship action and he admitted: "Would I have liked to play more games? Of course I would.

"By the same token, you have to look at Radek. I knew he was a great keeper before I came to QPR, we've got on very well and he's helped me with a lot of things in training.

"Radek was in the team when I arrived and he's been absolutely top drawer since then. That's credit to him and I can't have any complaints.