Michael Mancienne is looking forward to doing battle with a few old friends as Wolves travel to QPR for tomorrow's televised Championship clash.

The Chelsea defender made his senior footballing bow at Loftus Road, and went on to muster 61 appearances in spending most of the last two seasons on loan at QPR.

Now though he's on loan at Wolves, and ready to go toe-to-toe with his former team-mates in another tough old Championship match.

"I still speak to quite a few of them because I got along with them really well having been there two years," he explains.

"I speak to Dexter Blackstock and Rowan Vine quite a bit, so I might be marking my mate Dexter, although Rowan isn't fit yet.

"I spoke to Dexter last week and we said we were both looking forward to the game.

"He's a handful and he can finish so we'll have to watch him carefully."

Michael certainly feels he came of age during his loan spell in West London.

While he admits it suited him perfectly with the club situated to close to his house, footballing-wise it provided the perfect sort of challenge to hone his development.

"I'm from Feltham, which is just down the road from QPR - it was a case of 'easy life'!" he says.

"I was still living at home and I just used to drive to training - it was only 10 minutes away.

"We were fighting towards the bottom in the first season I was there.

"That was my first real taste of first team football as well so to come in at the deep end was difficult.

"I was mainly playing at right-back for a season. Half of one spell I was playing at centre-half and the other half at right-back.

"It was such a dog battle and we didn't have any cover at right-back so I had to play there.

"Every game was like a war, but it helped me mature as a player and grow."

Now though QPR are on the verge of the play-off race while Wolves head the table.

And Michael is certainly enjoying his current temporary home at Molineux.

"To come into such a good team is really good, especially because they play so much football," he added.

"To have good players around you breeds confidence all around - you're confident giving them the ball because you know they're going to keep it.

"It's good to have top players around you because it lifts the spirits of the boys when we're trying to push on."