Doyle focused on Wolves
Wolves striker Kevin Doyle has committed himself to a long-term fight for promotion after missing out on the chance to play Champions League football.
The 29-year-old saw the tantalising prospect of a loan move to Celtic appear and then pass him by on the final day of the January transfer as the Black Country club convinced him to stay.
Doyle admits that promotion this season is a forlorn hope with Wolves currently sitting in 21st place in the npower Championship table, just two points clear of the relegation zone.
However, he is hopeful that he can help them regain their Barclays Premier League status during what remains of his contract.
He said: “It’s a very good club, Wolves, a very big club. The aim was to get back promoted.
“It’s not going to happen this year now, but I still have two and a half years of my contract with Wolves and hopefully in that two and a half years, we can get ourselves promoted and back to the Premier League.”
That said, Doyle admitted he was tempted when it appeared there was a chance he could spend the rest of the season at Parkhead.
He said: “Obviously. They are in a fantastic position, going into the Champions League last 16 and at the top of their league, and it would have been a great opportunity at a massive club for four or five months.
“But in the end, the chairman at Wolves convinced me that they wanted me to stay on, so it was as simple as that.
“Once the club decided I was staying, that was it, that was the end of it.”
Doyle’s comments came after he and his international team-mates attended the Three FAI International Football Awards ceremony in Dublin last night.
Bolton midfielder Keith Andrews was named International Player of the Year, while Wigan’s James McCarthy won the Young International Player award and Hull winger Robbie Brady the Under-21s prize.
Doyle was honoured for his winner in the 2-1 World Cup qualifier victory in Kazakhstan last September with the award for the International Goal of the Year.
He said: “I knew we were in a bit of trouble. We needed to win out there to give ourselves a good start in the group and we were 1-0 down after 85 minutes.
“We got two goals in the last five minutes and it was a bit of a blur.
“Stephen Ward knocked one down to me and I caught it nicely and we won the game from nowhere really in the end, so it was nice.
“There are a few teams who have gone out to Kazakhstan and struggled since, so it shows it’s not an easy place to go.
“It’s like playing on the carpet we are standing on, the Astroturf is not the best. It might turn out to be a big result – it was a big result. It keeps us in there fighting with a very good chance for second place.”
