New loan signing Jay Simpson says he is relishing the challenge posed by playing regular first team football at Loftus Road after signing on loan at QPR from Arsenal on Thursday.

Rangers have moved to secure Simpson on loan from the Gunners for the rest of the season after a poor start to the campaign from their existing strikers. Although the 20 year old has played, and scored, for Arsenal’s senior side the majority of his football has come on loan at Millwall, where he was named League One PFA Player of the Year in 2007/08, and West Brom last season where he scored twice in 16 appearances.

QPR beat off competition from Burnley and others to secure the signature and Simpson told the club’s official website he cannot wait to get started at Loftus Road: “I met up with the Manager and I was very impressed by what he had to say. There's great ambition at this football club and I am a very ambitious person, so we were on the same wavelength from the first minute. I'm here to play football and win football matches. Jim understands football and the way it should be played and I'm just delighted he's brought me in to be part of what appears to be a very exciting future here.”

It had been suggested earlier in the week that the arrival of Simpson may open up an option to loan out of form striker Rowan Vine to another Championship club for a month or so to try and aid his recovery from a broken leg. However Vine’s improved performance against Accrington on Tuesday and a desire to stay and fight for his place at Loftus Road seems to have struck a chord with Jim Magilton and he is likely to start at Scunthorpe on Saturday aswell.

Magilton told the Ealing Gazette: “Rowan hasn’t done himself any harm against Accrington. We’ve got a group of lads coming back from injury getting to grips with league football again. There is an opportunity for others to get a regular place in the side - but at the moment no one’s jumping out to claim a place. I thought Viney did well against Accrington - he looked better, and I think it’s small building blocks for us all. We’re exploring the idea of getting someone new in, and if that happens.”

Elsewhere Hogan Ephraim, who has two goals in two starts but still only seems to be a bit part player in Jim Magilton’s plans, has been speaking about the importance of the League Cup competition that is giving him his only chances to shine at the moment. Ephraim told the Ealing Gazette: “It’s a massive opportunity to play against the big teams you don’t get a chance to play against week in, week out. It is a good competition and we want to progress as far as we can. You never know, you’ve seen some Championship teams get to semi-finals in the past few years, so it’s something we aim to do. A big team would be great. I missed the Man U game last year, so it would be good to get them.”

Elsewhere in the Championship today Crystal Palace bowed out of the League Cup at home to big spending Premiership side Man City who won 2-0 after surviving a few scares in the first half. The transfer market is hotting up with just four days of window left – Southampton’s Grzegorz Rasiak has joined Reading, Watford’s Tommy Smith seems set for Portsmouth after the completion of their takeover, and Swansea have moved to sign West Brom’s Craig Beattie and former favourite Lee Trundle from Bristol City to bolster their attack.

Photo: Action Images

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