O’Carroll tips Boyd-Munce for call-up after his howitzer sinks the Steelmen
WHATEVER he goes on to achieve in Paisley, Caolan Boyd-Munce certainly won’t forget his first St Mirren goal in a hurry.
The 23-year-old Northern Irishman was the hero yesterday as his first-half howitzer sent the Saints marching on into the quarterfinals of the Viaplay Cup.
A thunderous left-foot strike from the edge of the box, it was a goal fit to win any game and was the reward for a fine performance.
Afterwards, assistant boss Diarmuid O’Carroll tipped Boyd-Munce (pictured) for international honours with Northern Ireland after previously being in a couple of squads and playing at Under-21 level.
‘I’m a big fan of Caolan,’ said O’Carroll. ‘It’s brilliant for him, good for confidence and his family were watching.
‘He hasn’t had that many firstteam games. It was a massive day for him, just staying in the team because he made a little mistake last week.
‘The gaffer stood by him because he’s a massive talent. He will get strong and I’m sure Michael O’Neill (Northern Ireland boss) will be watching him. Caolan got an international call-up in March and he will again if he keeps this up. He does things that make you stand up and say “what a pass that was” or “what a shot” — like the goal. He’s a massive talent.’
St Mirren have now won six games on the spin in all competitions and are yet to concede a goal in this season’s Viaplay Cup.
O’Carroll added: ‘We have made this place a bit of a fortress and nobody likes coming here, even the Old Firm.
‘We don’t fear anyone and I would love to go to Hampden because I have never been there as a coach.’
St Mirren started the match well on the front foot and were operating at a good tempo with and without the ball. When the opening goal came on nine minutes, it was no less than they deserved. What a strike it was from Boyd-Munce. After the ball broke to him on the edge of the box, the Northern Irishman met it first-time and unleashed a thunderous shot towards goal.
The ball flew past Liam Kelly and into the top corner. Frankly, it was a strike of such quality that the Motherwell keeper never had a prayer of saving it.
Keanu Baccus then went close to extending St Mirren’s lead on 20 minutes when Motherwell gave the ball away cheaply in midfield.
The home side broke on them and Australian midfielder Baccus eventually fired the ball just over the bar.
Motherwell introduced Mika Biereth shortly after the hour-mark, the on-loan Arsenal striker who had inspired them to victory last weekend against Hibernian.
Saints substitute Toyosi Olusanya hit the post late on as they chased a second goal to kill the game. Afterwards, Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell took aim at what he felt were two blunders from referee Willie Collum.
Claiming that officials are now overly reliant on VAR, Kettlewell said: ‘There were two decisions in the game — one was a stonewall penalty in the first half for a handball against Mikael Mandron. It was a handball all day long, I’ve seen it back on video. His arm was outstretched.
‘But I was actually more irked by the tackle from Charles Dunne on Mika Biereth in the second half. It was an absolutely horrendous tackle, a shocker. Mika is now sitting in the treatment room.
‘I’m not throwing Willie
Collum under a bus, he’s one of our top officials. I asked at half-time about the penalty and he said: “There’s no VAR”.
‘Then there’s the horrendous tackle on Mika and, again, there’s no VAR. It was a shocker. The referees can’t just rely on VAR. They need to still call the game on the pitch.
‘We don’t know how bad the injury is. He’s struggling to put weight on it and has a lot of pain on the inside of his knee.
‘It wasn’t just the worst tackle in this game. It was actually one of the worst tackles I’ve seen so far this season undoubtedly.’