Lee Wallace made his debut for Queens Park Rangers at the weekend, in his side’s 2-0 defeat to Leeds United in the Championship. But how did the Scot fair at Elland Road?

A fringe player at Rangers, some fans weren’t sold on 32-year-old Lee Wallace’s arrival in the summer. Mark Warburton worked with Wallace in his time at Ibrox and was quick to secure his services when he was let go by the Glasgow club in the summer.

He’d spent eight years with the Scottish giants playing over 250 games for them, acting as club-captain until a long-term injury sustained last year.

It meant that Wallace would play just seven games for the club in the Scottish Premiership in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons before manager Steven Gerrard decided to let him go.

His arrival in West London was greeted indifferently – an ageing defender who’s played less than ten competitive games in the last two seasons. Low and behold, Wallace began the season on the sidelines and up until the weekend, fans didn’t know if they’d ever see the Scot in QPR hoops.

Returning to fitness in August, Wallace wasn’t named in a matchday squad until late September. He had a run of games on the bench for QPR and with Yoann Barbet missing the Leeds game due to injury, it paved the way for Wallace to make his debut.

There are few places tougher in the Championship to make your first competitive appearance since April than Elland Road, but Wallace hit the ground running and put in a more than commendable performance at the back, his highlight of the match being a last-ditch tackle to deny Patrick Bamford a certain goal.

He lined-up alongside Grant Hall and Toni Leistner in the middle-three of a five-strong defence, and despite the relatively easy 2-0 win for the home side, it was arguably one of QPR’s best defensive performances of the season.

Leeds were always going to be the favourites going into the game and were always going to have plenty of shots on Liam Kelly’s goal.

But Kelly once again looked like he’d improved in the game, and the defence in front of him looked much calmer than they have in previous weeks.

Wallace’s presence and Hall’s too, gave QPR a certain air of confidence and maturity that we’ve not seen all too much this season.

Warburton will have been pleased with Wallace’s performance on Saturday, and expect to see him, Hall and Leistner becoming well acquainted in the coming weeks as QPR continue their search for a clean sheet.

Should Lee Wallace start for QPR against Middlesbrough this weekend?

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