Derry City FC: Liam Boyce aiming to prove the doubters wrong

Experience matters is what they say and Derry City certainly have added that going into the new season.

While League of Ireland supporters have joked about City’s ‘Dad’s Army’ additions after Tiernan Lynch signed Carl Winchester, Shane Ferguson, Robbie Benson and Liam Boyce, Candy Stripes fans are excited about their new look squad, as experience was something which they felt was missing last season, particularly in the run-in.

“We’ve all played at whatever level we’ve played at and we’ve a lot of experience in our squad, who know all about the game, which I feel is a big part of things,” insisted Boyce.

“Listen no matter who you sign there’s always going to be doubters and it’s up to the people who have come in to prove them wrong and we’ll be trying to do that.”

Having finished outside the top four last year, the Candystripes will be looking to again be mixing it with the big boys.

“You always want to be up there challenging and we’ll be going into the season, trying our best to be challenging,” explained the former Hearts striker.

“You seen last year Shelbourne won the league, Shamrock Rovers are always strong and I feel there will be four or five teams who will be thinking the same, so we need to make sure to have our mind-set right, be going into the season challenging and giving everything we have every week.”

The League of Ireland top flight continues to improve both on the pitch and in the dug-out, with the likes of Damien Duff, Stephen Kenny, Stephen Bradley and Lynch all title winners and Boyce believes the profile of the Premier Division is something to be excited about.

“Yeah, 100% the league continues to be on the up,” he said.

“Whenever I was in Scotland I watched all the highlights from both the Irish League and the League of Ireland and you could just tell that the football is getting way better.

Boyce in training with his new team mates at Owenbeg.

“Even the managers and the coaches are now high profile and you could see whenever you were watching the matches you can see that the quality and the tactics are getting better.

“I played in the Irish League years ago it was more like you were playing with your mates, but now the standard of all the football in both leagues is driving up and hopefully that continues.”

TOUGH START

Derry take on champions Shelbourne, at Tolka Park on the opening night and the Belfast native is looking forward to Friday evening’s encounter.

“You want to be playing in big games and there’s nothing bigger than the first game at the champions,” confirmed Boyce. “Throughout pre-season that was on the back-burner, but now that we have got the minutes into our legs and with the season starting this week, we’re all looking forward to it.

“We’ve been working on a game plan and everybody knows exactly what we want to do, now it’s all about just trying to implement it.”

While all the pundits are talking about Shels, Shamrock Rovers and St Pat’s, the ex-Ross County man knows there are a lot of expectations throughout the Maiden City.

“It’s a massive season for us. We had a good week’s training camp in Cork, which I know helped all the boys,” he added.

“We used our pre-season games to work on things, to see where our weaknesses are and work on them to ensure we iron them out. We also used pre-season to work on patterns of play and other stuff.

“Pre-season was about getting the squad to gel together. With other teams I played in pre-season friendlies, whenever you made substitutes the games tended to die out, but in our matches, whenever we made changes the matches were always good and that’s because of the quality that we’ve brought into the squad.

“In fact, towards the end of matches we were still very good on the ball and creating chances, so yes it’s looking good but we all need to just keep our head down, keep working hard and continue to try and treat every game that we want to win.”

PRODUCING THE GOODS

Down the years Boyce has always produced the goods with both goals and assists and Derry City will be hoping that trend continues.

The 33-year-old partnership alongside Cliftonville’s Joe Gormley was a major reason the Reds won back to back Premiership titles.

During the 2012-13 campaign he finished top scorer notching up 29 league goals, while Gormley netted 17 goals and the following season he grabbed 21 league goals and Gormley was the leading marksman with 27 and in both campaigns the duo linked up superbly.

In fact, during his two spells with the Belfast men Boyce netted an impressive 85 goals, had 50 assists in his 183 matches and he states being a goalscoring playmaker has always been his style and he’s excited to be linking up with the likes of Pat Hoban, Danny Mullen and Sean Patton.

“It sort of depends on the club I’ve been at,” he explained. “Whenever I was at Cliftonville I would drop and get the ball and also scored goals. Then whenever I went to Ross County I just stayed in the box and tried to get goals, then at Hearts, I went back to the way I played at Cliftonville.

The experienced forward is hoping to make his mark at the Brandywell this season.

“To be honest we’ve a lot of good strikers at the club from Danny (Mullen), Pat Hoban and wee Sean (Patton). To be fair Seany scored a hat-trick against Sligo and he has been flying throughout pre-season.

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“It's just all about partnerships, I just want to learn what way they like the ball, what way they make runs and their movements and to be honest that is what I was buzzing about getting in for pre-season really early to see what way the boys play.

“It’s always difficult just coming in, getting thrown into things and not having pre-season behind you, so as I said it was good to come in and get pre-season under my belt and see how each individual player is as a person because I feel it brings you together better out on the pitch.”