Football League World
·24 November 2022
Football League World
·24 November 2022
Nottingham Forest loanee Alex Mighten has had to bide his time at Sheffield Wednesday but is starting to exert his influence in League One.
The 20-year-old winger joined the Owls on a season-long loan deal late in the summer transfer window and has made 10 appearances for Darren Moore’s side in total.
He was a regular fixture in League One in the weeks after his arrival but fell out of favour for a little while – featuring in just one of the eight league games between mid-September and the start of November.
Mighten has described that period as “difficult” but admitted he always knew he may have to wait for a chance to prove himself.
That opportunity came against Morecambe in the first round of the FA Cup and the Forest loanee certainly made the most of it as he opened his account for Wednesday by scoring the second goal in their 2-0 win.
The 20-year-old’s performance drew the praise of Moore, who labelled him a player with “wonderful feet” and hinted that more was still to come from him.
The manager has been proven right in recent weeks. He handed Mighten a League One start against Accrington Stanley on the 12th of November and was repaid as the attacker scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 win.
Mighten’s performance earned him another start a week later against Shrewsbury Town at Hillsborough, where he would help Wednesday secure a tight victory that closed the gap on the top two.
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The Forest loanee looks likely to keep his place in the starting XI when the Owls host Mansfield Town in the FA Cup on Saturday and he’ll be keen to use that opportunity to continue to win over the home support.
FLW’s Wednesday fan pundit Callum Maxted has suggested the attacker has been “a bit hit and miss” so far but believes that he can be an effective weapon this term as he grows in confidence.
As for his future at Forest, the Premier League side do have the option of recalling him in January but that seems unlikely given the plethora of attacking options Steve Cooper has and Mighten’s increased involvement at Hillsborough in recent weeks.
The Reds academy graduate’s contract runs until 2025 and as he’s still just 20, the City Ground outfit will likely reassess him in the summer and decide what to do with him – with another loan, a potential sale, or even a place in the first team squad an option depending on how he fares in 2022/23.