Paul Fennessy

IT CERTAINLY hasn’t been a bad couple of months for Tom Cannon.

On the back of some impressive form at underage level, the 20-year-old made his Premier League debut for Everton, coming off the bench in a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth last November.

In total, he has made three senior appearances for the Toffees before joining Preston on loan in January.

The drop down to the Championship has proved a relatively successful move thus far.

Despite fierce competition up front, with Irish international Troy Parrott, Man City loanee Liam Delap and Ched Evans among the other players vying for a forward spot, Cannon has played regularly and scored three goals in his last six games.

These eye-catching performances led to some speculation that Cannon — who has already represented Ireland at U19 and U20 level — could even be in line for an Ireland senior call-up, but the youngster plays down such suggestions.

“To be fair I just thought if the 21s call you up, I’m going to go, I haven’t missed a camp. Every time I’ve been asked, I turned up. I wasn’t really looking at the seniors, it was more coming here, hopefully, playing well against Iceland on Sunday and just seeing what happens then.”

Cannon grew up in Aintree and qualifies to represent the Boys in Green through his Irish-born grandparents with relatives hailing from Mayo and Galway.

Growing up, there were frequent visits across the water, mainly to Castlebar, to visit his grandmother and cousins.

Senior football may be relatively new to Cannon, but he is experienced when it comes to the industry at large.

“This is my 10th year at Everton, which is just mad, basically half my life. It’s been great for me, great club,” he says. 

It was Phil McQuaid, Everton’s Academy Education Manager, who also has Irish roots, that first got in touch with Ireland underage manager Tom Mohan and alerted him to Cannon’s eligibility.

By lining out for the Boys in Green, he followed in the footsteps of cousin Liam Flatley, a former Sligo Rovers player who represented the Irish U18s side once in 2014.

And several relatives are coming over for Sunday’s Turner’s Cross friendly against Iceland (kick-off: 4pm, live on LOITV), in which Cannon will be hoping to make his debut for Ireland U21s to continue an encouraging season.

He admits the circumstances surrounding his Everton debut were less than ideal — with the Toffees in danger of Premier League relegation, breaking into the team long-term was always going to be challenging for an unproven youngster.

“Everton were in quite a difficult position at the time with the table and whatnot, so to throw a young lad on was probably a bit risky, and obviously the manager at the time would have thought the same. It came to January and my opportunity came to go to Preston and I thought: ‘Go out there, great club, get playing, and get good minutes under my belt in the Championship and hopefully take that back to Everton.”

While his first-team stint may have been fleeting, Cannon’s stock evidently rose owing to these Premier League minutes. At the start of the season, a League One move looked more likely, whereas, by January, he was receiving concrete interest from Championship clubs. 

“I had a good conversation with the [Everton] U21s manager Paul Tait [at the start of the season], and he said: ‘If you stay and play 21s and hopefully bag a load of goals, play well, then you know, anything can happen’ type of thing. He was right, I stayed and scored quite a few for the 21s, made my League Cup debut against Bournemouth and then my Premier League debut against Bournemouth the same week, and obviously came on Boxing Day v Wolves, so it was good, I was even training with the first team every day.

“And ultimately it got me a better move in January to a better team. It’s all worked out well to be fair and my stay at Preston so far couldn’t have gone better really.”

The switch has afforded him the opportunity to play alongside several Irish internationals on the books at the Lilywhites, notably fellow striker Troy Parrott.

“We’re both young lads, we’re both getting used to the level of the Championship. It’s going well, I feel like when the two of us are upfront together we do well. It helps because he likes to drop short. When he’s playing he kind of covers that space and allows me to run in behind.”

And another Irish international has been watching Cannon’s progress with interest and providing encouragement from afar at Everton.

“Séamus [Coleman], as I always say as a young player coming through he’s always the first with the arm around the shoulder. Always comes over and chats with you and makes sure you’re alright. Since I’ve been away with Preston, he’s been dropping me texts after games and saying I’m playing well and to keep going, which is always nice. He texted me last week after Rotherham when I scored.”