David Moyes has confirmed Jarrod Bowen has signed a new contract at West Ham.

Bowen, recalled to the England squad last week for the matches against Australia and Italy, has committed his future to the club for the long-term.

The 26-year-old winger has scored 45 goals in 166 appearances for the Hammers since joining from Hull for £18million in 2020.

“Jarrod has signed a new deal, which is great news for us here at West Ham,” said Hammers boss Moyes. “He’s done amazing since he’s been here. He continues to improve.

“If you think of his own development as an individual, he started off at Hereford, moved to Hull and now in the Premier League and getting a chance to be in the England squad. I think he’ll get better as well.”

All roads lead to the Qipco 2000 Guineas for Rosallion after Richard Hannon’s high-class juvenile reignited Classic dreams when roaring back to form at ParisLongchamp.

Held in the highest regard from the earliest point in his career, the Everleigh handler describes the talented son of Blue Point as “right up there with the best we’ve ever had” having taken his tally to three wins from four starts.

Despite suffering an odds-on defeat in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, Hannon’s confidence never waned and his charge backed up his trainer’s lofty opinion to immediately bounce back in the French capital, claiming the Group One Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in real style.

Hannon said: “We were absolutely delighted and he showed us what he could do only 15 days after his flop in the Champagne Stakes.

“There were several reasons why (he got beat), he got a smack over the head with a whip and just didn’t operate in that ground at all.

“He had been working great before the Champagne and again before the Lagardere. He never looked like getting beat in the Lagardere, he travelled supremely all the way through, picked up lovely and it’s just nice to be right.”

Rosallion did have the option of racing again this year in either Newmarket’s Dewhurst Stakes or Stateside in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but connections are keen to keep the Guineas dream alive for as long as possible and the two-year-old will now head into winter quarters with thoughts firmly pointed in the direction of Newmarket in early May.

Currently 10-1 in the ante-post lists for the opening Classic of 2024, it is still to be decided if the strapping bay will tune up for his big-race assignment in one of the traditional trials.

However, Hannon did stress Rosallion is unlikely to be seen in testing conditions again following his disappointment on slow ground at Doncaster in September.

He added: “I think the plan we’ve discussed with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid is we will leave him and keep the dream intact for the Guineas.

“We will let him hopefully do well over the winter and give him every chance.

“Whether we go for a trial or not we will see, but he’s obviously not going to go anywhere where there is soft ground – and if it was soft ground for the Guineas, then that would include that as well.”

Hannon knows all about training leading operators at a mile and produced Night Of Thunder to win the 2000 Guineas in 2014, with Billesdon Brook claiming the fillies’ equivalent four years later.

Added to this, his father Richard Hannon Snr saddled eight Classic winners in Britain and Ireland during his time in the training ranks and also oversaw the career of the top-class miler Canford Cliffs from the family’s Wiltshire base.

And Hannon believes Rosallion has the potential to be the best of them all when he moves up to the mile distance next term.

Hannon added: “He will have no problem getting a mile and he’s right up there with the best we’ve ever had. He’s shown that since the first bit of work he has ever done.

“He’s certainly got as much promise as anything we’ve ever had. A horse like him makes the winter a lot shorter.”

Dan Skelton plans to have his stable star Protektorat “properly ready” for his defence of the Betfair Chase at Haydock next month.

The eight-year-old ran out an impressive winner of the Merseyside Grade One last season and was last seen finishing fifth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, having placed third in the blue riband in 2022.

And while Skelton is not ruling out a third bid for Gold Cup glory in March, his main focus at this stage is ensuring Protektorat is fully tuned up for his comeback run on November 25.

He said: “We will be going to Haydock fresh and ready for the Betfair Chase. From what I’ve seen, he has not gone backwards in any way. The way we will have him ready for that race is that we will have him properly ready. I think it will take a good one on the day to beat him.

“He will have an entry in the King George at Kempton and we will look at that. We will have to look sensibly at the Gold Cup as we have had two goes at it and it hasn’t happened yet, but we will worry about the spring when we get to it.

“Anything is possible at this point and what happens before March will dictate whether he should be there or not.

“If all of a sudden he found 10lb of improvement then you would have to have another go at the Gold Cup, but if the opposition have perfect seasons you might think you are better doing something else. We will do what is right for the horse.”

My Drogo has not been seen in competitive action bolting up in a novice chase at Cheltenham in December 2021, having missed the entirety of last season through injury.

However, the eight-year-old is on the comeback trail, with Skelton eyeing up some major prizes.

“He is back now and I’m delighted with how he looks,” said the trainer.

“I’d like to try and start him off in the Old Roan (at Aintree). That would be the perfect scenario. It was a shame he missed last season as you don’t want to be missing one of your stars.

“Every time he has stood up over obstacles he is unbeaten. He was improving until his problems, and we would like to pick up from where he left off. If we can go to the Old Roan on really nice ground that will give him the opportunity to step forward.

“He will have an entry in the Paddy Power Gold Cup (at Cheltenham) and Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes who own him are mad keen to get him to the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day, so we are trying to work him towards that.

“He looks fantastic and is behaving beautifully. He has as much ability as any horse I’ve had, and you have to take that seriously.”

Skelton confirmed Nube Negra is likely to make his return in next month’s Shloer Chase at Cheltenham, which he won last season.

Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy has been called into Wales’ World Cup squad.

Number eight Taulupe Faletau was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament after suffering a broken arm during Wales’ 43-19 victory over Georgia on Saturday.

But Wales feel they have enough existing back-row options to cover Faletau’s absence and Hardy, who will join the squad in Versailles on Sunday night, will increase scrum-half resources alongside Gareth Davies and Tomos Williams.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland said: “We feel we have a number of options in the back row at the moment, so we’ve decided to call up Kieran to give us extra cover at scrum-half and to take some pressure off from a training perspective.”

Hardy was left out of Wales’ initial World Cup squad after Gatland opted to select only two scrum-halves in Davies and Williams.

Wales assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys admits Wales’ mood after topping their World Cup group with an unbeaten record has been tempered by injuries to Faletau and Gareth Anscombe.

Fly-half Anscombe withdrew 45 minutes before kick-off against Georgia in Nantes due to a groin injury.

In terms of replacing Faletau against quarter-final opponents Argentina next Saturday, Aaron Wainwright is likely to switch across the back-row from blindside flanker.

Full-back Liam Williams was on crutches after the Georgia game following a blow to his knee but, while he could miss training in the early part of this week, Wales are hopeful about his quarter-final prospects.

“It is a big loss, he is a true world-class player,” Wales forwards specialist Humphreys said of Faletau.

“He is great around the place, but in a tournament these things happen and we have been very lucky in terms of the amount of injuries that we’ve had.

“But it still doesn’t detract from the loss of him. We will have a look over the next 24-48 hours (about a replacement) and make a decision then.

“You can’t replace what Toby (Faletau) gives, in terms of his intelligence and what he does, how he always turns up at the right place and makes the right decision at the right time.

“There is a huge onus now on everybody else to bring more.

“We are delighted that we topped the group, but then when you have close members of the squad who have been injured you are clearly down about that. It affects the mood.

“It is a tough one for Toby, but hopefully Gareth won’t be too long. He felt something in the warm-up and (we) made the decision not to play him. We will know over the next 36 hours what his chances are.”

If Wainwright moves positions, the vacancy at blindside flanker could mean a recall for seasoned campaigner Dan Lydiate, while Exeter’s Christ Tshiunza is also an option, along with switching captain Jac Morgan from openside and handing Tommy Reffell the number seven shirt.

Humphreys added: “We are blessed with the options that we have, but it still doesn’t detract from fact that Toby has been a massive player for us. Whoever steps in I am sure will step up to the plate.

“I think Aaron has been exceptional and I and he know there is more in him.”

Anscombe’s injury meant a late call to the starting line-up for Sam Costelow, while Dan Biggar is continuing his recovery from a pectoral muscle strain and should feature in Marseille.

“There is no thinking, you just have to do what you’ve got to do for the best of the team,” Costelow said, following his sudden elevation from the bench.

“Those senior boys talking to me, just telling me to do my job and to relax, that was massive for me, especially as a young 10. I am just glad we got the job done.

“You can never switch off, especially in this pressured environment. You have got to be ready at all stages. I did my homework, I knew the role and luckily it went well.”

Aston Villa missed the chance to climb into the Premier League’s top four after a 1-1 draw at Wolves.

Pau Torres’ equaliser, just two minutes after Hwang-Hee Chan’s opener, saw them come from behind at Molineux.

Mario Lemina was sent off in stoppage time for a second booking and Ollie Watkins hit the post with the final touch of the match.

Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Brighton opened the door for Villa to move into the Champions League spots but they never did enough for victory.

Wolves earned another solid point following last week’s swashbuckling 2-1 win over Manchester City to continue their progress under Gary O’Neil.

The manager would have been encouraged by another gritty performance and with better finishing from Pedro Neto it would have been another victory.

It was Villa, though, who started the brighter as Torres miscued a header and Jose Sa turned Matty Cash’s angled effort behind before John McGinn twice fired off target.

It preceded a good spell for Wolves, the hosts attempting to stamp their authority on the game without ever testing Emi Martinez.

Their final ball continued to elude them until Hwang crossed for Rayan Ait-Nouri to steer wide after 33 minutes.

Yet it was the hosts’ one decent chance of the half and they needed Lemina to rush out and block Douglas Luiz’s shot just before the break.

Villa’s start to the season, which had lifted them to fifth, was their second best in the Premier League but there were signs of tiredness and the visitors’ decision to resort to gamesmanship early belied the quality they have.

They emerged for the second half sharper, though, and Jose Sa turned over when Watkins directed McGinn’s pass goalwards.

It was a brief spark from Villa but there was little surprise when Wolves grabbed the lead after 53 minutes.

Douglas Luiz was caught by Hwang with the ball worked wide to Neto who ran at Torres. He engineered enough space to cross low for Hwang to poke in his fifth league goal of the season from close range.

But the celebrations were cut short just two minutes later when Villa hit back. The hosts failed to clear from Douglas Luiz’s free kick and Watkins’ cute cross was turned in by Torres.

It raised hopes the scrappy and, sometimes, ill-tempered game would take a step up in quality but neither side were able to ram home an advantage.

Wolves wanted a penalty when Neto tumbled under pressure from Boubacar Kamara while Villa failed to threaten Sa again.

With 12 minutes left, Neto should have settled the game when Sasa Kalajdzic’s excellent cross found Wolves’ star man, only for him to blaze over from 10 yards.

The hosts then had to see out eight of the 12 minutes of stoppage time – during which Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Nicolo Zaniolo went close – with 10 men when Lemina was dismissed for a second yellow card, after tugging back the Italian forward.

Watkins almost snatched it with the final touch of the game when his header smacked the base of the post.

Lewis Dunk’s late equaliser earned Brighton a 2-2 Premier League draw with Liverpool at the Amex Stadium.

Winger Simon Adingra took advantage of an error from Alisson in the visitors’ goal to give the Seagulls the lead midway through the first half.

But the game turned on its head before the break, Mohamed Salah slotting home to level after being played in by Harvey Elliott, then firing Jurgen Klopp’s side in front with a penalty after Pascal Gross had hauled down Dominik Szoboszlai.

Ryan Gravenberch spurned a golden chance to seal the win when he struck the bar with the goal at his mercy, before the final word went to the home side, Dunk volleying in 12 minutes from the end to keep Brighton sixth.

Roberto De Zerbi made six changes from the side that drew 2-2 in Marseille on Thursday, in keeping with the trend in the early weeks of the club’s debut season in Europe. Yet in the first period they appeared to pick up where they left off in storming back from two down to draw in the Stade Velodrome.

Their first chance came after only four minutes. Dunk got free at the back post from a corner and nodded back across goal, the ball sitting up at a good height for Joao Pedro whose shot deflected wide.

The opening goal was a calamity of Liverpool’s own making. Alisson played a careless pass to the feet of Alexis Mac Allister, seemingly oblivious to the lurking Adingra. He stole in to nick the ball from the former Brighton player, and with quick thinking took the shot early and rolled it inside the post before goalkeeper Alisson could recover and set himself.

Liverpool were shaken and Brighton began to take a hold of the game. Carlos Baleba exposed the visitors’ porous midfield when he collected inside his own half and drove through the heart of Klopp’s side, carrying the ball to the edge of the box before checking back and dragging a left-footed effort inches wide.

Liverpool equalised against the run of play after 39 minutes. Dunk gave the ball away to Szoboszlai near halfway and the Hungarian fed it forward to Darwin Nunez. He moved it on to Luis Diaz, whose ball in to Elliott was perfectly weighted for him to set up Salah to slot home.

Salah gave Liverpool the lead from the penalty spot in the 44th minute after Bart Verbruggen playing an awkward pass to Gross that put the midfielder under pressure. He was dispossessed by Szoboszlai and in a desperate attempt to recover the ball he yanked down the Liverpool midfielder, allowing Salah to step up and bag his second from the spot.

The hosts almost restored parity in the first few minutes of the second half, Evan Ferguson finding Adingra with a reaching pass into the right channel. Adingra darted beyond Andy Robertson and feinted to shoot, instead cutting back inside and hitting a low effort that was well saved by Alisson.

Gravenberch, on as a half-time substitute, wasted a glorious chance to extend the lead when he struck the crossbar with the goal gaping from Szoboszlai’s cross, before the Hungarian turned provider for Diaz who burst into the box and blasted wide.

Karou Mitoma thought he had won Brighton a penalty after 69 minutes, cracking a shot at goal from six yards that appeared to ricochet onto the arm of Joel Matip. The award never came, and furious De Zerbi was booked for remonstrating with the fourth official.

Brighton’s equaliser was no more than their assured performance warranted.

Solly March’s whipped free-kick from the left had pace and bend, and as Andy Robertson missed it at the near post it was met first time by Dunk, who thumped home on the volley.

Pedro should have won it when he was left unmarked from 10 yards out, instead the striker leaned back and ballooned a glorious chance over as an entertaining game finished level.

Mohammed Kudus climbed off the bench to score his first Premier League goal as West Ham snatched a 2-2 draw against Newcastle.

The Magpies looked set to follow up their memorable 4-1 Champions League win over Paris St Germain on Wednesday with a hard-earned three points on the road after Alexander Isak’s quickfire double cancelled out Tomas Soucek’s early opener.

But Ghana winger Kudus, the £38million summer signing from Ajax, struck a minute from full-time to earn the hosts a deserved point.

West Ham, who had their own continental exertions in the Europa League against Freiburg on Thursday, took the lead with the first attack of the match.

Lucas Paqueta was the architect with an exquisite chip which sent Emerson Palmieri racing through on goal.

The full-back knocked the ball past Nick Pope before unselfishly squaring it for Soucek to tuck into an empty net.

Bruno Guimaraes, who signed a new contract at Newcastle this week, was lucky to escape an early red card when, seconds after being booked for fouling Emerson, he blatantly tripped James Ward-Prowse.

Newcastle, as many teams do at West Ham, dominated possession – they had 72 per cent in the first half – yet all they had to show for it was a Miguel Almiron shot from 25 yards which flew wide and Dan Burn glancing a header the wrong side of the post.

David Moyes revealed after Paqueta’s star turn in the 2-1 win in Freiburg that the Brazilian playmaker at times has him “tearing his hair out”.

One such maddening moment came in first-half stoppage time when he tried one trick too many and was dispossessed inside the West Ham half, but Newcastle were unable to take advantage as the hosts eventually cleared their lines.

After the break Edson Alvarez, West Ham’s Mexican midfield enforcer, was inches from his first goal for the club when he headed Ward-Prowse’s corner wide.

Newcastle finally tested Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola, who made an incredible save to keep out Burn’s header from Isak’s cross.

But moments later the visitors drew level, Isak reacting quickest after Alvarez inadvertently headed Kieran Trippier’s free-kick back across goal and firing home.

And within five minutes Newcastle were leading when Trippier’s superb cushioned volley-cross was tucked away from close range by Isak.

The Sweden striker went agonisingly close to claiming a hat-trick when he rounded Areola but, from a tight angle, could only hit the post.

It proved costly when Kudus collected Vladimir Coufal’s pass 20 yards out and lashed the equaliser past Pope.

The Hammers almost won it in stoppage time but Said Benrahma was just unable to convert Jarrod Bowen’s drive across goal.

Sacamiro was given a patient ride by Jan Faltejsek to win an eventful 133rd Velka Pardubicka.

Patrick Mullins had gone over to ride last year’s winner Mr Spex – but he was an early casualty at the famous Taxis fence, while Peter Maher’s two runners, Jet Fighter and Alpha Male, ridden by Sean O’Keeffe and Petr Tuma respectively, were both out of luck.

Mullins, who also fell on each of his two previous attempts in the race, said of his latest departure: “The horse in front came right across and took two of us out and refused. There was nowhere to go.”

James Best, riding Lombargini for Stanislav Popelka Jr, had a great thrill by finishing fourth.

Faltejsek, who had a spell riding in the UK and is best remembered for his association with George Charlton’s smart hurdler Knockara Beau, was winning the famous race for a sixth time.

The 10-year-old was kept away from the heat of the battle through much of the gruelling four-and-a-quarter miles but could be spotted travelling ominously well with half a mile to run.

By then Kaiserwalzer, who had cut out much of the running, was beginning to back peddle and it was Star and Talent who looked the main dangers.

Sacamiro had plenty up his sleeve, however, and sprinted clear after the final obstacle to win going away.

Steven Davis believes Rangers’ 3-0 win at St Mirren was a “step in the right direction” for the managerless Ibrox club.

The former Gers midfielder, whose contract had expired in the summer but was continuing his rehab from a knee injury at the club, took up the reins on an interim basis last weekend after Michael Beale departed following the 3-1 home defeat by Aberdeen.

Davis’ first game in charge was an embarrassing 2-1 Europa League defeat against Aris Limassol in Cyprus on Thursday night.

Some Rangers fans unravelled banners early in the game in Paisley which read ‘heartless passionless leaderless; not fit to wear our colours’ before skipper James Tavernier scored from the spot in the 29th minute after Saints’ Ryan Strain was shown a red card by referee Nick Walsh for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Attacker Abdallah Sima stroked in a second in the 70th minute and Tavernier hammered in a third in the 90th minute as Rangers leapfrogged Stephen Robinson’s side into second place, seven points behind leaders Celtic going into the international break where a new manager is likely to be appointed.

“Robbo has them really well organised so we are delighted to come here, keep a clean sheet and score three goals,” said Davis, who revealed 17-year-old debutant Zak Lovelace had to come off in the first half with a hamstring complaint.

“It is a step in the right direction, going into the international break.

“It was important to come here as a group, and the fans as well, and win.

“There is still a long way to go but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

“We have to take the positives out of today. But we will not get ahead of ourselves. It is only a small step to where we want to go but it is a positive step and I’m sure the players will take some belief from it.”

On the fan banner, Davis said: “People are entitled to their opinion. Players share the same frustration as the fans.

“Obviously we get the opportunity as staff and players to change things on the pitch.

“This is not where I wanted to be as I wanted two positive results from the two games.

“But I just thanked them for their effort and their desire. It is not easy with a quick turnaround after Thursday night.

“I couldn’t have asked any more from them in terms of what they have given me.”

On his own future, the Northern Irishman said: “I really don’t know. My remit was to come and take these two games, first and foremost.

“Now it gives the club and the board an opportunity to get someone in place.

“Up to this point I’ve continued my rehab and need to make a decision in terms of that on whether I play on or not.

“I have always thought that down the line I would go into management.

“This opportunity came out of the blue and it has been a steep learning curve.

“I think I have learned a lot over the two games. I have had a lot of support in terms of the staff behind me and in the building.

“That has been massive for me and for the players as well.”

St Mirren boss Robinson had no complaints about Strain’s red card for handling the ball near the line which proved so pivotal in what was his first league defeat of the season.

He said: “I thought we were excellent to start with. The red card changes the whole game.

“People have to make decisions in the game. It’s just a reaction from him. It’s a poor decision – we know that – and the referee gets it 100 per cent correct.

“I was miles away and thought at first it had hit a Rangers hand but obviously it didn’t. But it’s definitely a sending-off.

“If you go 1-0 down with 11 men we’re still right in the game. We’re playing really well. But the red card changes it completely.”

Bukayo Saka’s club-record run of consecutive Premier League appearances ended as he missed Arsenal’s clash with Manchester City due to injury.

The England winger had played 87 successive top-flight games and here, the PA news agency looks at his record.

Key man

Saka has four goals and two assists in seven Premier League appearances this season, a total which could have been even higher had he not ceded penalty-taking duties to first Martin Odegaard and then Kai Havertz against Bournemouth last week.

Since he last missed a game, as an unused substitute against Newcastle on May 2, 2021, Saka has started all but four of Arsenal’s league games and come on as a substitute in the others. He has played the full 90 minutes plus stoppage time on 44 occasions, almost exactly half the games in his run.

He has 29 goals and 21 assists to his name in that time for a combined total of 50 in the 87 games.

That accounts for the vast majority of his 35 Premier League goals overall, in 142 total appearances, and includes reaching double figures in each of the last two seasons – with 11 and then 14 – as well as for assists (11) last term.

Arsenal have won 57 of those games, with 11 draws and 19 defeats for a total of 182 points. Their 84 last season brought them a second-placed finish behind champions City.

Passing Merson

Paul Merson held the previous record with a run of 82 consecutive Arsenal appearances in the Premier League.

Merson was ever-present for just over two years between defeats to Sheffield Wednesday on February 4, 1995 and Wimbledon on February 23, 1997, before sitting out the following week’s win over Everton.

The two-time league champion – like Saka, an Arsenal academy product – scored 15 goals in that run, contributing to his career total of 99 in 425 Gunners appearances across all competitions.

Saka has 43 in 189 games overall and, aged just 22, has already surpassed Merson’s totals of 21 caps and three goals for England – how far can he go with the club?

Adam West will head to the Breeders’ Cup with renewed confidence after Live In The Dream made an encouraging start to his American adventure at Keeneland on Saturday.

The Nunthorpe hero made an early journey across the Atlantic in preparation for next month’s showpiece meeting in California, travelling to Keeneland to contest the Grade Two Woodford Stakes.

The four-year-old proved the eye-watering speed he displayed at York can be just as effective on US soil, cutting out much of the running under Sean Kirrane and looking the likely winner before being caught late in the piece and passing the post in fourth place.

Far from despondent, West was thrilled with the performance. He said: “We were a small bit frustrated the 80-1 shot (Foxtrotanna) hassled us as I think we could have improved a position or two if that hadn’t happened, but overall we were delighted with what we saw.

“He went above and beyond the early sectionals that are needed to put it up to the best of the Americans. Going into the race I was disappointed Caravel (last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner) wasn’t there, but the numbers don’t lie and I think he’s going to be pretty dangerous on a sharper track.”

Despite the defeat, West feels vindicated in his decision to send Live In The Dream to Kentucky, rather than keeping him at home for a tilt at last weekend’s Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp.

“I’m so pleased we decided to come to Keeneland. I don’t know what we would have learned in the Abbaye. We could have put a bit more into the purse, I suppose, but I think coming here has taught us so much more,” he continued.

“I was quite stressed yesterday, just not knowing whether we were going to be able ride aggressively. In England you get easy leads with a horse with his speed as no one wants to come at you that early, whereas here they were attacking him and he still had enough gate (speed) to go two lengths clear of reasonable horses.

“I think I can go to Santa Anita now a little bit more relaxed and just enjoy it because he’s ticked the boxes that he has and is able to hold his head up high when he contends that race.”

With the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint run over half a furlong shorter than the Woodford Stakes, West is more hopeful than ever that his stable star has what it takes to make his presence felt at Santa Anita on November 4.

He said: “He’ll stay at Keeneland in the quarantine barn until October 25 and then fly down with the other horses that will be going from east to west coast.

“He’ll have a shorter journey (than the other European horses). If we’d come straight from the UK to the Breeders’ Cup he’d have a long flight, then five days (in quarantine) and then straight onto the track, whereas now he has a shorter flight and an extra day, so I’m really pleased with how it’s played out.

“Without being pig-headed about it, I think they’re almost coming into our ballpark and our playpen at Santa Anita. If the Breeders’ Cup was at Keeneland it might be a different story, but the attributes of the track at Santa Anita are going to suit him better.

“With a half decent draw and nothing going seriously one way or the other way with the ground, I think he’s got it all.”

Britain’s Jake Jarman claimed Britain’s first medal of the World Gymnastics Championships with gold in the men’s vault in Antwerp.

The 21-year-old from Peterborough is the first British gymnast ever to claim the vault world title.

Jarman is the only gymnast in the world performing the Yonekura vault and he scored a huge 15.4 for that before being awarded 14.7 for his second vault, giving him an overall score of 15.05.

That was comfortably enough to put him top of the charts ahead of American Khoi Young and Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine, with Britain’s Harry Hepworth down in seventh.

“It’s doesn’t feel real yet,” said Jarman. “I just can’t believe it. I was definitely nervous competing, especially for that first vault. As soon as I landed that first vault, instantly I shut all my emotions down.

“I’m just super proud to be able to perform the way I did today under that stress and that pressure. It gives me a huge confidence boost, especially leading up to next year.”

It is Jarman’s first individual medal at world level. Last year he claimed four golds at the Commonwealth Games, took European gold in vault and was also a world bronze medallist in the team event.

The event had been somewhat disappointing for Britain prior to Jarman’s success, with the women’s and men’s teams both missing out on medals while Max Whitlock came off the apparatus during his pommel horse final.

Rangers gave themselves some much-needed respite with a 3-0 cinch Premiership win over 10-man St Mirren in Paisley.

Former Gers midfielder Steven Davis began his spell as caretaker manager with an embarrassing 2-1 Europa League defeat against Aris Limassol in Cyprus on Thursday night and there was a sense of foreboding about the trip to the SMiSA stadium.

Some Rangers fans unravelled banners early in the game which read ‘heartless passionless leaderless; not fit to wear our colours’ before skipper James Tavernier scored from the spot in the 29th minute after Saints’ Ryan Strain was handed a red card by referee Nick Walsh for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Attacker Abdallah Sima added a second in the 70th minute for his seventh goal of the season before Tavernier smashed in a third in the 90th minute as the Light Blues leapfrogged Stephen Robinson’s side into second place, seven points behind leaders Celtic but the prospects of a genuine title race is another thing altogether.

Rangers will appoint a new boss during the international break and the Ibrox club clearly need fresh ideas, strategy and motivation going forward.

The only radical change Davis made to the team was to give a first senior start to 17-year-old attacker Zak Lovelace – he would go off injured in the first half – with John Souttar, Jose Cifuentes and Kemar Roofe also coming into a fragile Ibrox outfit.

Defender Richard Taylor and striker Toyosi Olusanya were reinstated into the Buddies side who clearly fancied their chances but there was little between the teams in the opening exchanges.

In the 21st minute St Mirren defender Scott Tanser, who signed a new deal until 2026 on Saturday, found himself alone at the back post from a Conor McMenamin free-kick but blasted his shot over the bar.

Rangers, however, would soon take the lead.

Lovelace found space on the right and blasted the ball across goal with Strain appearing to knock it away from in-rushing Sima with his hand.

After a long VAR check, referee Walsh checked his pitch-side monitor, sent off the St Mirren player and awarded a penalty to the visitors which Tavernier converted to the ire of the home supporters.

In the 34th minute Goldson met a Borna Barisic corner with his head but Buddies keeper Zach Hemming acrobatically tipped the effort over the bar and the home side ultimately escaped.

In the 41st minute Lovelace limped off the field and was eventually taken away from the sidelines on a stretcher, after being replaced by Ross McCausland.

In added time, the 20-year-old knocked a Barisic pass down to Nico Raskin inside the St Mirren box but the midfielder’s goal-bound drive was blocked by Hemming for a corner, which came to nothing.

There was no immediate improvement from Rangers in the second half and striker Cyriel Dessers replaced the anonymous Roofe on the hour-mark, while Saints soon brought on Mikael Mandron, Alex Greive and Caolan Boyd-Munce.

Rangers doubled their lead in the 70th minute with an unusually swift break, Tavernier sending Raskin scampering through the middle with a first time pass and he squared for Sima, on loan from Brighton, to beat Hemming from close range.

St Mirren were on their way to the first league defeat of the season.

Dessers ran clean through in the 86th minute only to have his unconvincing drive saved by Hemming but there was time for Tavernier to thrash in a second from the edge of the box, after his first effort was blocked, a fine goal out of keeping with the most of the game.