Having hit the net just five times in their last nine Premier League matches it’s clear that goals have been a problem for Everton in their relegation battle. But one Blues player out on loan has been firing his team closer to where his parent club don’t want to be – The Championship. Since returning from a hamstring injury that had kept him sidelined for 16 of their previous 17 matches since late December, Nathan Broadhead’s return to fitness has given a late boost to Sunderland’s promotion push.
While Dominic Calvert-Lewin has failed to score in 11 outings in all competitions since return from a quadriceps injury in January that had kept him out for four months and Richarlison’s deflected stoppage time equaliser against Leicester City was his first Premier League goal from open play under Frank Lampard, four goals from Broadhead in the six games since he came back into the side, a sequence that includes last-minute winners over both Gillingham and Shrewsbury Town plus a brace in a 5-1 romp at home to Cambridge United, have put the Black Cats back into the play-off picture.
Sunderland travel to Morecambe on Saturday in fifth place (the third of four play-off spots) on 81 points, a point more than Plymouth Argyle who host third-placed MK Dons and Wycombe Wanderers who go to Burton Albion.
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Although 19 th -placed Morecambe go into the game a couple of spots clear of the drop zone, they’re certainly not in a position to put the flip-flops on given they could still be relegated so Broadhead and his team-mates can expect a competitive game. The Shrimps’ neighbours Fleetwood Town, who are a couple of points below them, go to Bolton Wanderers while Gillingham, also on 40 points but in the drop zone by way of an inferior goal difference, host second-placed Rotherham United.
Despite his impressive form of late, Broadhead will be determined to get back into the grove on the Lancashire coast after a disappointing display in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at home to Rotherham. Sunderland failed to register a single shot on target against the Yorkshire side who are hoping to secure automatic promotion and Footballfancast cite SofaScore as recording that the Everton loan man lost four of his six individual battles and did not make any key passes or dribbles among his 19 touches of the ball.
Regardless of whether Broadhead is able to help Sunderland clinch promotion this season – this is their fourth straight campaign in the third tier after suffering back-to-back relegations from the Premier League and Championship in 2017 and 2018 – it will be curious to see where he is plying his trade next term. Born in Bangor, the Welshman made his Everton first team debut way back on December 7, 2017 courtesy of an eight-minute cameo at the end of a 3-0 win in Cyprus over Apollon Limassol in a Europa League dead rubber in which a team led by first team coach Craig Shakespeare (manager Sam Allardyce and assistant Sammy Lee stayed back in the UK) blooded a clutch of youngsters, including Anthony Gordon, for the first time.
However, in the four-and-a-half years since, Broadhead has turned out just once more for the Blues first team, two minutes at the end of a forgettable goalless stalemate at Brighton & Hove Albion played behind closed doors because of coronavirus restrictions. His only other time farmed out was again in League One to Burton Albion in 2019/20 and although he scored in a 2-0 Carabao Cup upset against Premier League Bournemouth, that was one of just three goals in 22 matches as manager Nigel Clough mostly deployed him on the left wing.
Broadhead still has another year to run on his current Everton contract but given that he celebrated his 24 th birthday earlier this month – the same age that Romelu Lukaku was when he left the Blues for £75million after four years’ service – he can no longer be classed as a young prospect. Given the uncertainty back at Goodison Park though, the prospect of him actually returning to Merseyside and being part of the squad next season cannot be entirely dismissed though at this stage so Evertonians might just be keeping an eye on the Sunderland game on Saturday and the subsequent League One play-offs if Broadhead’s side make it.
