Knight: First Division players ‘forgotten about’
CABINTEELY man Kevin Knight fears that players from the First Division have been left out in the cold as the League of Ireland tries to plan for a return to action.
The south Dublin club were top of the Division One table, with three wins from three games, before the season was halted due to Covid-19 in March.
The focus has been very much on getting the top flight to resume as well as clearing a path for the four Irish clubs who had already qualified for Europe to compete in the preliminary rounds in July/August but Knight has raised his voice on behalf of the second tier.
“The whole First Division has been forgotten about,” he says. “Maybe it’s not seen the same way as the Premier Division but it’s all the League of Ireland, no matter what the division is. I know there are big teams in the Premier Division and they will be talked about more than us, but the teams in Division One can’t just be forgotten about. And not knowing when we’re going back is killing us, you can’t keep training if you don’t know when you’re back.”
The Cabinteely squad have been working remotely under the supervision of the coaching and medical staff but the halt in the season came at a bad time. “We’d won four out of four, three in the league and we won in the EA Sports Cup as well, we were on a roll and it was a shame we had to stop when we did; hopefully we can get that form again when we go back.”
The Cabinteely veteran has an eye on events cross channel as Kevin’s brother, Derby County and Ireland U-21 player Jason, also has his career on hold. “Derby were due to go back ages ago but they’re still waiting to go back. It’s hard on Jason to miss out on so much football as it was going so well for him.”