Loan watch: Marquinhos off the mark for Norwich

Marquinhos made an instant impression on his Norwich City debut, by scoring and assisting during their 2-0 win against Cardiff City.

A muscle injury meant the Brazilian winger was forced to wait for his Canaries debut following his deadline-day loan move, but he made a huge impact when pulling on the yellow shirt for the first time on Saturday.

He picked out fellow countryman Gabriel Sara to open the scoring on 33 minutes, before four minutes later he swept home from inside the box to get off the mark for his new club and help them to within a point of the Championship play-off places.

There was also joy in the division for Brooke Norton-Cuffy, as he played all of Coventry City’s 2-1 win against Sunderland which was the Sky Blues’ third successive win, taking them up to 11th in the table.

However, Auston Trusty missed Birmingham City’s loss against Luton Town with a calf injury that could keep him out for a few weeks.

In the Premier League, Sambi Lokonga helped Crystal Palace hold Liverpool to a goalless draw at Selhurst Park with the Belgian international playing all 90 minutes, but it wasn’t such good news for Ainsley Maitland-Niles whose Southampton side suffered defeat at the hands of Leeds United in what was Ruben Selles’ first official game as Saints boss, with Ainsley also playing the full game on what was his 100th Premier League appearance.

Our only other loanee in action in England last weekend was Taylor Foran, who played 58 minutes of Hartlepool United’s 3-3 draw against Walsall, with the result lifting them two points clear of the League Two relegation zone.

Over in France, the top two faced off in the big game of the weekend in Ligue 1, but Nuno Tavares saw Marseille’s hopes of catching PSG suffer a huge blow as they lost 3-0 at home to the Parisians, leaving them eight points behind their title rivals. Nuno played all 90 minutes at the Stade Velodrome.

Elsewhere in the division, Folarin Balogun helped Reims record an impressive 3-0 victory over Toulouse to remain 10th in the table, although didn’t get on the scoresheet himself.

Arthur Okonkwo tasted defeat for the first time since joining Sturm Graz as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Austria Klagenfurt, and Pablo Mari couldn’t prevent Monza from slipping to a 3-0 loss at Salernitana.

In Scotland, Ryan Alebiousu came on for the final five minutes of Kilmarnock’s 1-1 draw against Motherwell, while Alex Kirk played the entirety of Ayr United’s 0-0 draw at Raith Rovers.