Former Rangers defender McDonald returned to Loftus Road last week to help out caretaker manager Gary Waddock who has taken charge since Holloway was placed on gardening leave.

McDonald insists it is only a temporary role, but in the meantime QPR will benefit from his hugely impressive coaching background, starting tonight when the Loftus Road outfit travel to Selhurst Park.

"For the past four or five years I have been working really hard to get qualified on the coaching side of things," said the former Northern Ireland centre-back who retired in 1998.

"I took that decision because I realised that the way things were going people would have to get the badges to work in football.

"But I actually started coaching back in 1994 with the QPR Academy while I was still a player. Even when I was 25 I was interested in getting kids involved and I soon moved up to coaching the 14 and 15-year-olds with Rangers.

"I think some people know from an early age they want to be a manager, but I was more into the coaching and wanted to get myself fully qualified.

"I took my UEFA Pro Licence in 2000 and at the time I was one of only 50 coaches in Britain who had that qualification. Since then I have become qualified as a coach educator, which means that I can now teach new coaches up to their UEFA B Licence.

"Before this temporary job came up with QPR I was doing a lot of work with the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire FAs and I think it's important to teach coaches the right way to do things.

"I think it is vital that if you are going to be a coach you are doing things properly. Personally, I enjoy working at grassroots level and my coaching skills have given me a great opportunity to get into that side of things."

Stay with TheFA.com as we continue our look at the new breed of young managers coming through.