Boyce bags brace to cement a five-star start
AFTER a summer spent in the international shade, Liam Boyce looks like a man intent on grasping every bit of domestic limelight he possibly can. Mind you, much more of this and the horizons will soon broaden again to overseas engagements.
Left out of Michael O’Neill’s final Euro 2016 squad, Boyce struck a memorable Highland derby hat-trick last weekend, the first in the fixture’s history. Yesterday, he made it five in two matches, twice popping up in the right place at the right time.
His country face the Czech Republic in early September and it is impossible to imagine he will not be on O’Neill’s radar, no matter how well his current strikers have done in dark green.
Ross County have certainly benefited from Boyce’s freshness after the break, although this was a very poor Kilmarnock.
“Liam has a fantastic picture of the game in his brain,” manager Jim McIntyre reflected later.
“When he does things really sharply, he is a real handful to play against. His goals were scrappy today compared to one he scored against Inverness.
“But I love those goals because he’s in the right area – and that’s what we’ve really been concentrating on with the forwards.
“I wasn’t concerned about an adverse reaction from Liam after missing out on the Euros. His wife had just given birth and it gave him time to spend with his family. I know he was very disappointed not to go, but he is certainly looking really fresh.
“He will get all the attention with the goals but Liam will be the first to compliment his team-mates on creating the chances for him.”
McIntyre, while delighted with six points from a possible nine, admitted there was much better to come from the players.
“We ground out a result today. We didn’t play our best freeflowing football,” he stressed. “Sometimes we played some nice stuff but on other occasions we had to defend a lot of high balls from free-kicks.
“But my back-line stood up to that fantastically well.”
For Killie, there were instant debuts for the latest young imports from south of the border, Luke Hendrie and Charlee Adams, bringing the Ayrshire club’s summer signing spree to 14 players.
County had netted nine goals in three league victories over Killie last season but took time to get the measure of the Ayrshire men, despite overall control before the 29th-minute breakthrough.
Boyce dragged a pass wide to Gardyne and his dangerous, low ball in was only half-cleared. Boyce made minimum fuss of slamming in the opener as it broke to him eight-yards out.
Killie offered little before they buckled again after 74 minutes – as Boyce grabbed his second of the match. Substitute Alex Schalk sprinted through on the left side of the Killie box and cut the ball back across for Boyce.
The Northern Irishman seemed to fluff his first attempted swipe but, with the resulting chance, seven yards out in front of goal, confidently powered in the crucial second.
Killie boss Lee Clark pointed to blunders for both goals and urged his team to learn from them ahead of Friday’s tussle with Rangers.
“The two goals we lost were, without a shadow doubt, preventable. They were disappointing goals, to say the least,” Clark said.
“We’ve been disappointed with how we’ve defended. The second was very preventable as well, getting caught off the long kick from the keeper.”