Former Hearts and Sunderland star poised for free agency as rival dumps pressure on Hibs

Former Hearts and Sunderland defender Jimmy Dunne has claimed that he has had no discussions about extending his Queens Park Rangers contract in recent months.

The 27-year-old made 14 appearances for Craig Levein’s team in 2018/19 during a six-month loan spell from Burnley, helping the team to a sixth place finish. Dunne left and moved onto Sunderland, then Fleetwood Town before finally finding a permanent home in West London with QPR, who he joined in 2021.

The defender has racked up more than 120 league appearances for the club but faces an uncertain future with less than six months remaining on his existing contract at Loftus Road. Dunne is free to begin discussions with clubs outside of England from the start of January and admits he’s not yet thought about what the future holds.

Dunne, whose father died earlier in the week, scored the opening goal in QPR’s shock 3-0 victory against promotion hopefuls Norwich City last Saturday. Speaking after the game, Dunne told West London Sport: “I’ve had no conversations. We’ll see what happens I suppose. I haven’t really thought about it.”

Ross County stars heaps pressure on Hibs ahead of crunch Premiership clash

Ross County defender Akil Wright insists now would be the perfect time for the team to break their barren goalscoring run away from home.

The Staggies, who sit 8th in the Premiership table, have scored just one goal away from home this season, which ironically came in Edinburgh against Hearts in a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle.

Don Cowie’s team have started the season with 15 points from 16 games in total this season, with just three of those points coming away from home.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Easter Road, defender Wright said: “We’ve not scored an away goal in a while, so it would be great to chance that on Saturday, and hopefully end our drought of not winning away from home. If we could win, it would be massive – we want to increase the gap to six points. It’s a massive game and we need to turn our away form around.

“What a time it would be to do it. There’s a lot of pressure on both teams, but we’re looking forward to it.”