Neilson happy Boyce pulled out of Northern Ireland games

ROBBIE NEILSON hopes Hearts reap the benefits this weekend against Rangers after backing Liam Boyce’s decision to turn down Northern Ireland.

Boyce opted not to join up with his country and missed their World Cup qualifiers against Switzerland and Bulgaria.

He also asked to be left out of Ian Baraclough’s squad for last month’s matches against Switzerland, Estonia and Lithuania “for family reasons”.

The former Ross County striker has not retired from international duty and Baraclough insists the door is always open for him.

But the decision seems to have paid off at club level, with the 30-year-old netting his 10th goal in just 13 games this season in Hearts’ recent 2-0 victory over Motherwell.

He will again be a key man in Saturday’s top-of-the-table encounter with the champions and Neilson has backed Boyce’s decision to stay at home.

He said: “Liam is at that age now where he wants to focus on Hearts. I think the door is still open if he wants to go back.

“But he just felt it was right to concentrate on us just now.

“I back him on that. He is getting to the age where it’s difficult to do these trips away and continue to play week-in, week-out.

“I’m pleased he’s decided to do it.”

The last time Hearts won at Ibrox in the Premiership was a 2-1 victory in March 2012, but thanks to the international break they have had plenty of time to plot another success that would move them to the top of the Premiership table and send out a statement of intent.

With his team unbeaten in their opening eight league games and just a point behind Rangers, Neilson added: “After the last international break, we came back strong and we were decent.

“You always hope you are going to do that but you never know until you turn up in the games.

“But it does give you that chance to get a good build-up in.

“We spoke about it a little last week and we have already started speaking this week about what we are going to do.”