Glasgow Rangers head coach Philippe Clement maintained his unbeaten start to life at Ibrox with a 2-0 win over St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
The Light Blues recorded a victory for the first time in three matches after successive draws against Aris and Aberdeen, ahead of their clash with Hearts on Wednesday.
Abdallah Sima scored both goals for the Scottish giants and produced a superb performance down the left flank. However, it was Todd Cantwell who was the star of the show as he proved his worth with a stunning display.
Abdallah Sima's performance against St Mirren in numbers
The Brighton & Hove Albion loanee was pivotal to the win as his two finishes provided the separation between Rangers and St Mirren.
His first goal came after some impressive build-up play down the right eventually resulted in the ball falling his way and the forward produced a fantastic finish to make it 1-0.
The second goal then came as he latched onto a ball through the middle of the pitch and coolly dispatched the ball into the back of the net.
Sima, who has now scored seven Premiership goals this season, did, however, lose six of his eight ground duels, failed with his only attempted dribble, and completed 68% of his attempted passes across the 90 minutes.
This shows that it was not a perfect performance from the winger, who was loose on the ball at times and did not create any chances for his fellow attackers, but there is no knocking how clinical he was in the final third.
Todd Cantwell's performance against St Mirren in numbers
Meanwhile, Cantwell provided a brilliant all-round display as he proved his worth after a difficult evening against Aris in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Clement decided to withdraw the midfielder after 37 minutes as the forward struggled on the right wing with his lack of pace and inclination to drift inside to pick the ball up in central areas.
The head coach provided the English whiz with an opportunity to catch the eye in his more natural position through the middle as a number ten on Sunday and it got the best out of him.
Cantwell recorded a Sofascore rating of 9.0 – the highest of any player on the pitch – as he ran the show in midfield and helped Rangers to dominate, and win, the match.
The 25-year-old magician set up both of Sima's goals and the second assist was, particularly, special as he split open the St Mirren defence with a wonderful through ball.
He created four chances for his teammates in total – second only to James Tavernier's six – and completed 88% of his 60 attempted passes.
Cantwell, who had 80 touches of the ball, also completed 100% (2/2) of his attempted dribbles and won six of his nine ground duels over his 86 minutes on the pitch.
Like Sima, the former Norwich star had a hand in both goals but, unlike the winger, had a sublime all-round performance to go alongside his goal contributions.
Therefore, Cantwell was better than the Senegal international and proved his worth to Clement and the Gers supporters with a perfect response to Thursday night's disappointment.
