Dunne insists he has nothing to prove

QPR defender Richard Dunne says he would have nothing to prove were he to play against his former club Aston Villa tonight.

The 35-year-old spent four seasons at Villa before moving to Loftus Road last year after being released following a lengthy injury lay-off.

“I’m too old to try to prove people wrong,” he insisted.

“You just go out and every time you play you want to prove the manager’s right for picking you.

“It [playing for Villa] was something I enjoyed and I’ll enjoy playing against them. It’s a great club and hopefully now they’re back on track.

“They’ll be looking at coming here and saying it’s a chance for them to get going again, so it’s going to be a tough game.

“They’re a side like ourselves in that they need to pick up a win. We’ll both be going into it wanting the three points and [with] us trying to close the gap on them.”

Villa are struggling, having lost their last four games without scoring, while Rangers are bottom of the table but were much improved in last Sunday’s 3-2 defeat at home to Liverpool.

Dunne added: “We were disappointed that we were being questioned in terms of effort and commitment.

“We’ve needed to go and show everybody that we’re 100% up for the battle that we have on. I’m sure we’ll get ourselves out of it.”

Under-pressure R’s boss Harry Redknapp will be without midfielders Joey Barton and Jordon Mutch, who are still unavailable, while Sandro is hoping to overcome a groin problem in time to play.

Rangers are confident Nedum Onuoha will be passed fit after a hamstring strain, but Niko Kranjcar has been struggling with a virus.

Forward Eduardo Vargas looks  likely to start, having come on and scored twice against Liverpool.

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