#liam boyce

[kent-farm]

—Fun Fact: Liam Boyce who plays ‘Punk #2’ (who falls near camera) in this scene is also Alex Garfin’s stunt double, Superman and Lois, “The Inverse Method”

[imperial-waterboy]

[superstaggie]

A bad day for Ross County. Beaten 2 - 0 by St Johnstone and Boyce injured. :(

[afc-1903]

Liam Boyce Signs Pre-Contract With Ross County

Ross County have secured the pre-contract signature of Cliftonville striker Liam Boyce. The 23-year-old, who has four caps for Northern Ireland, will move to Dingwall when his deal expires next month. Boyce started his career at Cliftonville, and was highly prolific as a teenager, going on trial at Celtic and Kilmarncok, before earning a move…

Liam Boyce Signs Pre-Contract With Ross County was originally published on afc1903.co.uk

[afc-1903]

Liam Boyce Linked With Ross County Move

Cliftonville striker Liam Boyce is being strongly linked with a move to Scottish Premiership side Ross County. The Irish Premiership champions said earlier this week that they had withdrawn a contract offer to the Northern Ireland striker. A Cliftonville statement said requests by manager Tommy Breslin to hold talks with Boyce had been “rebuffed”. BBC Sport…

Liam Boyce Linked With Ross County Move was originally published on afc1903.co.uk

[fluidfootball-blog]

Lack of young players?

The Irish league has had some bright, young players in the past, including the likes of Glenn Ferguson, Gerard McMahon and more recently Liam Boyce.

However, in recent history there haven’t been nearly as many young players to really break through and light up the league. Is it because the clubs are bringing in more experienced players instead of calling young players up from their academies or is there just not the same talent as there once was?

Glenavon’s Mark Carson, who recently broke into the first team said: “I hope to be a regular on the team very soon but they have a good strong team at the minute and I know it won't be easy to break in but I'm just delighted to even be a part of the squad at my age and I can only keep hoping for a chance sometime soon.”

Former Cliftonville striker Liam Boyce was signed by German giants Werder Bremen and more recently 18-year-old, Ciaran Ryan completed a surprise move from Loughgall to Brazilian side Porto Alegre FC. Perhaps, it is just simply much harder for Irish league clubs to hold on to their star players compared to what it was ten or twenty years ago.

Are the connections between local clubs and the league teams still as strong as they used to be? There isn’t much evidence to prove that league teams are still taking young players from grass roots level. Lurgan Ladies hockey team have benefitted greatly from this structure in recent years and have now become one of the strongest teams in Ireland.

If local clubs could bring young players into the league like they used to, maybe Northern Ireland could benefit in the future. Belgium has certainly benefitted recently by blooding new, young and exciting players such as Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel, Eden Hazard and Simon Mignolet.

Sunderland goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet said: “If they (Belgium) could play in another World Cup or European Cup we would be very happy already. We have the talent for it, now we only have to get a team together.”

Obviously these are players with great football talent but perhaps Belgium, who, like Northern Ireland struggle to qualify for international tournaments, could be seen as an example by our wee country and the IFA could create a ruling system for teams to try and bring young players through.

Lisburn Distillery striker, Gary Liggett, said: "I was about 18 when I got my first game for Portadown. It was difficult at that stage because they had players like Gary Hamilton and Vinny Arkins there. It was hard to adapt from playing reserve team football."

"For someone young it's probably really important to try and not to get caught up in the whole partying and drinking culture. So common to see young players fade away who prefer to party than play football."

The reserve league is full of young talent such as Cliftonville’s Jack Duffin and Coleraine’s Ryan Doherty. Hopefully in the next few seasons players like these can bring the league forward.