It was a proud day for everyone at Derby County on Wednesday as Academy graduate Jason Knight earned his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland.
The midfielder, who has risen through the youth ranks at Pride Park Stadium, came on for the final seven minutes in Ireland’s UEFA Nations League clash against Finland in Helsinki.
Knight only made his professional debut for the Rams at the start of the 2019/20 season against Huddersfield Town and went on to make 35 appearances in all competitions, scoring six times, in the campaign.
The 19-year-old has continued that fine form in the 2020/21 season and is the only Derby player to play every minute of the campaign so far and has scored one goal which came against Preston North End in the Carabao Cup.
His debut did end in defeat as Stephen Kenny’s side were beaten 1-0 by Finland, however, it’s a day which Knight will remember for the rest of his life.
Elsewhere, both David Marshall and Kamil Jozwiak enjoyed successful games with their respective countries in the UEFA Nations League.
Jozwiak played 72 minutes for Poland against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Group A1 and helped his side to a 3-0 victory at Stadion Miejski.
The winger earned himself an assist as he laid the ball on a plate for Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski to score the opening goal against 10-man Bosnia.
The win puts them top of their group ahead of Italy and the Netherlands with two games left to play.
Meanwhile, Marshall, who was playing at Hampden Park for a third time in less than a week, kept another clean sheet as Scotland took a giant step forward in their bid for qualification from their Nations League group.
Scott Fraser’s early strike was enough to seal all three points and a 1-0 win against second-placed side Czech Republic with only two games now remaining.
Marshall had to be aware throughout the night as the Czech’s posed an attacking threat, mainly from former Rams striker Matej Vydra, but he stood firm to earn his third successive clean sheet.