Tommy Smith is expected to join Queens Park Rangers in an emergency loan deal after his permanent move from Portsmouth collapsed.

The Football League received the paperwork for the £1.5million deal at 6.02pm last Tuesday — two minutes after the transfer window closed.

And they have rejected the transfer, meaning Smith has been training with the Championship leaders for a week despite not officially being a Rangers player. Both clubs still want the switch to go ahead and are expected to agree a loan, which will become permanent when the transfer window reopens in January.

Portsmouth could request Smith returns to Fratton Park but that is unlikely after they signed Stoke frontman Dave Kitson as his replacement.

Both sides are understood to be frustrated at the delay, with QPR thought to have started faxing over the documents before the 6pm deadline, only to finish sending them too late.

By law multi-million pound transfers must still be completed using fax machines rather than e-mail. However, it seems unfair that Tottenham were given extra time to sign Rafael van der Vaart last week, when QPR were not given the same allowance for Smith.

The striker is expected to be available for Saturday's clash at home to promotion favourites Middlesbrough.