MARK Hateley is on his way out of Ibrox, despite the fact that

Rangers' assistant manager Archie Knox yesterday described reports that

the injured striker was about to join Queen's Park Rangers as

''speculation.''

Hateley will travel down to London tomorrow, and subject to the usual

medical, will join the Loftus Road club in a deal estimated at #1.5m.

The big striker also will become assistant manager to his former Ibrox

team-mate, Ray Wilkins.

Knox was in charge at Ibrox as manager Walter Smith travelled to

Germany last night to see Borussia Dortmund, Rangers next Champions'

League opponents, in action against Eintracht Frankfurt in the

Bundesliga, and when asked about the Hateley situation, he said:

''There's always going to be speculation. There is nothing concrete, and

there has been no bid.''

But then it emerged that Hateley's agent was having talks with Queen's

Park Rangers manager Wilkins about personal terms for the man who

finished up as Rangers top scorer last season.

Wilkins has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to unload some

of the #6m the London club received from Newcastle United for Les

Ferdinand to bring Hateley back to England, and the big fellow, who has

played in England, Italy, France and Scotland, now is on the move again.

Meantime, Hateley's other priority is to get himself back to full

fitness following knee and ankle injuries and Knox said: ''He is walking

about fine and it shouldn't be too long before he is back training.''

That now looks certain to be in London.

On the home front, Rangers bid to maintain their 100% domestic record

when they entertain Hibernian at Ibrox this afternoon, but there is a

doubt over left back Davie Robertson, who had to be taken off against

Celtic last Tuesday night with a hamstring injury. The injury is not a

bad one, but with the match against Dortmund coming up next Wednesday,

Rangers may decide to give him an extra few days to get himself fully

fit.

''Not that we can afford to look ahead to Wednesday,'' said Knox. ''We

have Hibernian tomorrow and that should be enough to occupy all our

thoughts for the moment. We will have the same squad as we had for the

Celtic match, plus Ian Ferguson, who is back after a hamstring injury.''

Paul Gascoigne, who started on the bench at Falkirk last week, will

definitely play from the start against Hibernian, and Russian striker

Oleg Salenko will again team up with Ally McCoist.

Falkirk, who have had a dreadful start to the season, wilol be hoping

to pick up their first points whenh they meet Motherwell at Brockville

and manager John Lambie said yesterday: ''Losing our opening three games

isn't good form, but all we can do is keep working hard and hope we get

a long overdue rub-of-the-green.

''We don't want a gap to develop between ourselves and the other

teams. It's going to be a long, hard season and we can't afford to give

our rivals a few points of a start.''

Mo Johnston and David Weir have both passed fitness tests and will

play, but Johnston's strike-partner Colin McDonald will miss the match

after picking up an ankle injury.

Motherwell manager Alex McLeish will be looking for a boost after

Wednesday night's Coca-Cola Cup defeat by Aberdeen. He said: ''There is

a very fine line between success and failure at the moment. Although we

lost 2-1 to Aberdeen, we had the better chances in the match and could

just as easily have won.

''Despite the defeat the boys played well in the match and I'm hoping

they can keep it going at Brockville.''

McLeish will be without midfielder Paul Lambert and there are doubts

about left back Rob McKinnon.