KILLIEAREINTHE CROSSHAIRS
Boyd-Munce won’t give up on Euro dream
“Going into these last few weeks, we’ve asked, ‘can we achieve fourth?’, and we’ve always believed we can.
“We have pressure on ourselves. Pressure doesn’t always come from the outside. If we were happy coming in sixth, then we could just coast through it.
“But we’ve come here thinking what can we do for ourselves instead of worrying about anyone else.
“We have to go out and put our best foot forward. We can’t here and just expect to get beat. If we come here thinking we’ll get beat and just die slowly, there’s no point. It’s not football.”
Boyd-Munce has been a star for Saints, particularly in this second half of the season, and recently celebrated signing a new one-year deal at the SMiSA.
The former Birmingham City and Middlesbrough prospect has had to work hard to earn his place and revealed leaving Paisley wasn’t even a consideration as he attempts to put down some roots.
“I’ve had a tough run at big clubs and sacrificed a lot to not play football,” he said.
“Coming here, St Mirren have given me a platform and I’ve enjoyed it so it was never in my mind that if we didn’t get Europe, I wasn’t staying.
“I’m happy here, I’m playing football and I’m settled. I think we can attract bigger players and have more of a squad.”
Boyd-Munce is still awaiting his first Northern Ireland cap – but was thrilled to be part of Michael O’Neill’s squad for the 1-0 win at Hampden recently.
He said: “It was really good — apart from not getting on!
“Scotland are a top team and how they’ve transformed since five or six years ago is really brilliant to see and I think they will do well at the Euros.
“Players down in England are looking at the top flight in Scotland and thinking about coming here.
“You can see the standard is getting better. People say this and that but me, coming in with fresh eyes, you can see it really is.”
Away from football, BoydMunce has graduated with an Honours degree in law as he looks to future-proof himself outside of football.
“I think it has helped me to be honest,” he added.
“I like to be focused on something else.
“When you move away when you are young, you are just suffocated by football. Everything is football, football, football.
“It wasn’t something that I found tiring or was affecting my football.”