IT may not be news to the Hearts supporters who watched his second half performance on Wednesday night against Celtic, but even so, they may just have unearthed a gem with the loan signing of forward Ellis Simms from Everton.

That’s the emphatic verdict of new teammate Beni Baningime, anyway, who came through the ranks with Simms at Goodison Park before heading north to Gorgie in search of first-team football.

Baningime joked that a future as an agent may lie ahead of him after helping to convince Simms to join him in Edinburgh, but in fairness, it didn’t exactly require a hard sell to get him north of the border.

“They’ve got a great player,” Baningime said. “I was speaking to him [on Tuesday], before he signed, I was telling him about the games, the fans, the league and just how passionate everyone is. He said he really wanted to join.

“I thought he was brilliant [against Celtic], it’s good to see him and soon you’ll see him scoring hopefully.

“I done a little bit of agent work, but the gaffer convinced him on that, the club itself, how we’re doing right now, I think that convinced him.”

Given he only met his teammates a few hours before the game, Simms second-half showing was all the more remarkable.

“Straight away he was ready,” said Baningime. “I think it must be something about Everton. They must be creating them good players and selling them for free.

“I’m really happy for him, I knew he was going to get going, so now I’m just waiting on his first goal.

“He’s a big player. When we were training with the first team [at Everton] he looked really good. I think he’ll do well here and kick on to whatever he wants to do after that.”

Among his most notable attributes on show on Wednesday evening were his strength and his ability in the air, but for Baningime, there is one quality he has that makes him stand out.

“His pace,” he said. “He’s lightning.

“You can give him a bad ball and he’ll make it into a good ball. That’s an attribute that not many people have and when he gets into those positions, he can put the ball away.”

On a personal level, Baningime was delighted to be back in action himself after a period on the sidelines through injury. And on a collective level, he felt that Hearts were unfortunate to come away from the Celtic game with nothing to show for a good second-half performance, particularly after Liam Boyce’s missed penalty.

“It’s great to be back,” he said. “I’d have loved a win, even a draw, it felt like second half we have done enough to get that. On a personal level, I’m really glad to be back.

“We’re a little bit frustrated, but it happens. Boycey got us the goal to get us back in it and on another day that hits the post and goes in and then I’m sitting here speaking about a different situation.

“That’s football though and I think we’ve got to take the positives and move on from it.

“[Liam] was gutted about it of course, but anybody could’ve taken that penalty, he was the one that brought us back into the game, we value him so much in this team.”