United manager Brian McDermott insists that exciting times lay ahead following the double loan arrivals of Jack Butland and Connor Wickham.

Butland, a signing late last week and Wickham, who arrived on Wednesday, are both available for selection at QPR this weekend and the boss is delighted to have the duo at the club.

“Jack and Connor coming in is great news for the club,” said the boss. “They are both England Under-21 internationals and we are delighted to have them.

“We are looking forward to working with Connor. He is hungry, like Jack, and they are both good additions to the squad.

“We are trying to go to QPR to get the right result. There are still 45 points to play for. This is the right thing for Leeds United. These are exciting times here with the calibre of players we have brought in.”

The boss is wanting optimism to surround the club as United head into the final 15 games of the season and he says that a Play-Off spot is still achievable.

“We need that sense of optimism,” added the manager. “I think that is really important.

“From our point of view we want that optimistic situation and we want to win as many games as we possibly can.

“Sixth is achievable but we need to get on a run of results. We want to play a certain way and we are working with the team to get to that way of playing.

“We worked again on that on Thursday morning and we’ll do it again on Friday before we set of for QPR.”