Liam’s up for Hearts title grind

Liam Boyce doesn’t care if Hearts wrap up the title with a swagger – as long as it’s not a stagger.

The Northern Irishman would happily grind out three points every week so long as they book a return to the Premiership.

Boyce smashed in the winner from the spot as the Jambos bust Ayr United’s unbeaten home run in a Somerset 1- 0 slog.

It moved Robbie Neilson’s side a step closer to the top flight even if it did little to entertain those who tuned in for the BBC’s live Friday night action.

Another Friday night away day faces the Tynecastle side this week as they head to Dumfries to take on Queen of the South.

And asked if it was important to turn on the style in the march to the title, Boyce said: “I don’t care as long as we get three points. And I don’t care who scores.

“We believe in ourselves, we just need to keep battling when we go to tough places like Somerset.

“It might be 1- 0, it might be 2-1, you don’t know. We just need to keep battling and keep getting clean sheets.

“The first half was a bit scrappy, Ayr made it really tough for us and we didn’t have any good play.

“Second half was different and we got balls in the box and got a penalty from one of them.

“We said a few games ago that we wanted to keep more clean sheets because we believed we could score goals against anyone. That was a big factor at Ayr.

“Even when they were throwing everything at us at the end, we were putting blocks in and getting our bodies on the line. That’s only going to stand us in good stead.”