Loan report: Nine in nine for Sima at Rangers

A host of Albion loanees were in action over the weekend, with Abdallah Sima stealing the headlines after scoring his ninth goal in nine games for Rangers.

The 22-year-old scored twice at Ibrox as the Gers beat Hibernian 4-0 in Philippe Clement’s first game in charge, and afterwards Sima said he was enjoying life in Scotland.

“I’m happy to be here and to score goals.” said the striker from Senegal. “I’m enjoying every minute. Before I came, everyone told me it is a big club with amazing fans but I didn’t expect it to be as big as it is. I know I have to score goals because we are Rangers and we have to win every game. I will stay focused on my performance, and I will keep doing that to score goals and help the team.”

Like Albion, Rangers and Sima are next in Europa League action this Thursday as they travel to the Czech Republic to face Sparta Prague - a city our out-on-loan striker is very familiar with.

Sima said, “It’s been two years since I left Prague [to join Albion] and I have a lot of good memories of my time there. But I was a Slavia Prague player so the Sparta fans will not like me! It will be a hard game for us but the quality we have at Rangers makes me think we can beat them. I am expecting us to win.”

It was a fantastic weekend for Rangers, as their women’s team also secured an important victory with Libby Bance coming on at half-time to help her side beat Celtic 2-1 in the Old Firm derby.

Elsewhere in Europe, Deniz Undav scored the third goal in Stuttgart’s 3-0 win away at Union Berlin and Kjell Scherpen helped Sturm Graz beat Hartberg 2-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga, but Kacper Kozlowski and Vitesse Arnhem lost 4-0 to a Feyenoord side featuring former Albion winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Back on British soil, Carl Rushworth and Swansea were unable to stop runaway leaders Leicester from becoming the first team in the history of the English second tier to win their first six away league games of a season as they lost 3-1.

Yasin Ayari’s Coventry also suffered defeat in the Championship on Saturday, although the 20-year-old Swede didn’t come off the bench in their 1-0 defeat at Bristol City, while Andew Moran and Jeremy Sarmiento were unavailable for Blackburn and West Brom respectively.

Meanwhile in the Women’s Championship, Chelsea Ferguson was a second-half substitute for Blackburn but couldn’t prevent a 2-1 defeat to Durham, and Lulu Jarvis had to watch on from the bench as Reading lost 3-1 at home to Sheffield United.

In League One, James Beadle conceded a 92nd minute equaliser from Jordan Rhodes against Jensen Weir’s Blackpool, as the Tangerines drew 1-1 at Oxford, and Marc Leonard tasted a 2-1 defeat against Bolton despite playing 90 minutes for Northampton, but Cam Peupion’s Cheltenham secured their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory against Cambridge.

Finally, in National League South, Bailey Smith and Worthing suffered late heartbreak against leaders Yeovil Town, who were in the Championship with Albion a decade ago.

Smith came on in the second half and helped the Rebels draw level four minutes from time when Ollie Pearce scored from the penalty spot, but the Glovers stole victory when Morgan Williams headed home in the 98th minute.