Lowe keen for season to continue

PLYMOUTH Argyle manager Ryan Lowe has voiced his opposition to idea of a circuit-breaker in football – which is being proposed by an increasing number of people within the game – to stem the rising number of positive coronavirus cases within the sport.

Argyle still have more than half of their League One campaign to complete and Lowe is frustrated by games being called off “willy nilly”.

He said: “I don’t want to get too much into it but, for me, there are too many games being called off willy nilly.

“If they want to call games off, fine, they will have to play Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for probably two weeks maybe. I don’t want to do that.”

Lowe has praised the Pilgrim’s Covid-19 protocols as ‘second to none’ as they work to avoid cases of coronavirus at Home Park.

The Pilgrims have had some positive tests among their players this season but to date they have not had to call off any games, and Lowe wants it to stay that way.

Lowe continued: “The protocols we do here are second to none. It’s different class. We have to make sure we do things properly, and we certainly are.

“Hence that we have had a clean bill of health in and around the club for a while now.

“I’m not too worried about circuit breaks and everything else. I just don’t see any point in it. We just keep going.

“Football is one of the safest places around and probably still should be because you are in your bubbles.”

Nine midweek matches in the EFL were ‘suspended’ due to Covid-19 issues. That has led to calls for either the season to be halted – for a so-called circuitbreaker – or increased testing of players and staff.

Argyle chief executive Andrew Parkinson supported calls for twice-a-week testing of players and staff across the EFL in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.

He believes the cost should at least in part be funded by the Professional Footballers’ Association.