Gold Coast Knights to channel FFA Cup pain into NPL title push, starting with Sunshine Coast visit

SUSPENDED forward Jarrod Kyle says the Gold Coast Knights will channel the pain of their shock FFA Cup exit into a concerted pursuit of NPL frontrunners Peninsula Power.

SUSPENDED forward Jarrod Kyle says the Gold Coast Knights will channel the pain of their shock FFA Cup exit into a concerted pursuit of NPL frontrunners Peninsula Power.

Seemingly destined for a second-straight Round of 32 appearance, the Knights crashed out of the cup last Friday with a horror 5-1 loss at home to mid-table NPL side Brisbane Strikers.

The defeat, which was compounded when Kyle was sent off for a second bookable offence, now leaves the NPL as the sole focus for the Knights, who are 12 points adrift of the Power with three games in hand.

Spirits within the Croatian Sports Centre were lifted slightly last Saturday as the Power fell 4-2 at home to Easts for just their second loss of the NPL season.

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Sitting third, the Knights will travel to Kawana at 4pm this Sunday to face last-placed Sunshine Coast and Kyle said the cup agony had only served to intensify their NPL hunger.

“All the boys put (the cup loss) behind them at training on Tuesday and we all had our recollection of the game and what went wrong, what we need to do to improve and get something out of the season.

Suspended Gold Coast Knights forward Jarrod Kyle. Picture: East End Digital

“Obviously it adds a bit more fuel to the fire to go on and really contest for the (NPL) title,” the 25-year-old, who will serve a one-game ban on Sunday, said.

“You can’t look in the past, you’ve got to keep moving forward and try to get something out of (the season). The day after we lost the cup game (Power) went and lost another league game, which puts us in contention.

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“If we can go on and win the next 13 games, we will win the league. It’s a pretty big ask to win 13 games but if we can just take one week at a time we can look back at the end and say we’re top.

“We’ll just have to do everything we can to put ourselves in that position.”

Kyle conceded Grae Piddick’s men would need to lift against the Fire following a cup performance he described as “flat”.

“(The cup) was a huge focus. Some of the boys haven’t really played in that competition past the qualifying stages before so there was definitely a big emphasis to win that game, especially because a lot of behind-the-scenes people at the club were expecting big things,” he said.

“We had a flat week at training and that correlated straight into the weekend. In a game like that, you’ve got to be prepared, you’ve got to be ready to go because if you get caught out it can change the dynamic very quickly.

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“We let not only ourselves down but quite a few key people around the club so it was something to learn from, which we will I’m sure.”

Coming off a 5-2 win over SWQ Thunder, fifth-placed Gold Coast United host Strikers at 7pm tomorrow.

United’s women, who are seventh in the NPLW, will play their first fixture in two weeks against Sunshine Coast at Tallebudgera at 5pm.