FOR Liam Boyce, his career at Hearts “felt like a week”. It doesn’t seem like five years ago the Belfast man was scoring the winning goal on his debut to sink Rangers at Tynecastle before indulging in one of the most elegant, electrifying celebratory knee slides in Scottish football history.
“I was walking out of the Hearts training ground, and I had a lump in my throat,” Boyce says.
“I was thinking, this is the last time I’ll be here. It all flashes in front of you. I was there for five years. That’s the longest I’ve been anywhere. And you think, how can it go so fast?
“Then you go home, and you see your son [Ziggy] who’s going on four and my daughter [Scout] is eight. You think of what you did at Ross County, at Hearts, at Burton Albion – and that part of your career is gone...
“When you play football you never truly get attached to a place, but we loved Edinburgh. Leoncha and I got married there, Scout’s first school was there, we were part of the community where we lived…”
Life as a professional footballer is often a nomadic and ruthless existence. From a professional and family perspective, Boyce’s move to Derry City completed in the middle of last month ticked all the boxes for him.
But there’ll be people he’ll miss at Hearts.
“Football moves on,” he says.
“The day after I left, I’m sure the Hearts fans were already thinking about the Aberdeen game. With the manager, you have a professional relationship, but it’s the other people you meet around the club – the chefs and other staff.
“Clare Cowan works in the office there and does everything for you. If you’ve any problems, she helps you. She’s basically a saint.
“She’s one of the most important people at the club. It is people like that (you’ll miss). Even when I was leaving, she was still helping me move. I kind of choked up when I said goodbye. Anybody who knows her would say she is the heartbeat of the club.”
“Liam came over and spoke to me when he knew he was leaving,” says Clare, Head of Football Operations at Hearts FC.
“It’s tough when you see the good guys go, but at the end of the day, he’s going on to do something else and he’s doing the right thing for his family.
“Throughout his time here, Liam was always upbeat - even when he was injured, he would always have a bit of chat with you.”
Boyce had offers to stay in Scotland. St Mirren, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and his former club, Ross County, made enquiries.
Cliftonville assistant Gerard Lyttle also spoke to him about a possible loan deal to come back to Solitude until the end of the season.
“I always had it in my head that I would go back to Cliftonville, like go full circle,” Boyce says.
“’Skin’ [Gerard Lyttle] phoned me a couple of weeks ago about a loan, but it just wouldn’t have worked out.
“The older you get, the less chance you have of being full-time, so Cliftonville only wanted a loan until the end of the season.
“I would have been a free agent and I mightn’t have had the same options.
“When Tiernan [Lynch] phoned I was absolutely buzzing. I didn’t know Tiernan, personally, only through Irish League circles and people who used to play for him - the likes of Tomas Cosgrove, Marty Donnelly, Chris Ramsey.
“There were a couple of interested clubs in Scotland. And you’re thinking of your family - but when I talked to Tiernan, he made it a lot easier and he made me feel wanted.
“If I’m wanted that’s all you ever need as a player, and Tiernan made me feel that most.
“I know what he achieved at Larne and what he’s planning to do at Derry City.”
In five years at Hearts, Boyce played under six managers – Daniel Stendel, Robbie Neilson Steven Naismith (twice), Frank McAvoy and current boss Neil Critchley.
When Critchley took the reins in October 2024, it signalled the end of Boyce’s time at Tynecastle.
The new manager got straight to the point. The 33-year-old striker would only play if the team had injuries. For Boyce, the reality bit down hard on his ambitions.
“I was a bit annoyed because he hadn’t seen me play. I was shocked. But that’s football.
“It happened to me in Germany [Werder Bremen] too. If a manager doesn’t rate you there’s nothing you can do about it.
“Despite hearing that, I always trained well to show the manager I was good. At the end of the day, it’s his job and he’ll go with a team that he thinks is going to win.
“I’m not going to throw the toys out of the pram. I didn’t take it personally.”
Boyce got his head down and trained as if he was part of the manager’s plans but also knowing his future lay elsewhere.
After a while, though, Critchley couldn’t ignore Boyce’s silent claims to be part of the first team.
“I was training well and the manager approached me and said: ‘Listen, your attitude has been brilliant. You’ve been training well. You haven’t kicked up a fuss or anything…’ And I gradually worked my way back in.
“I’d been left out of squads and when I was being brought on for the last couple of minutes in games, it’s like freedom, there’s nothing really you can do wrong because it can’t get any worse. I was coming on and trying my hardest…”
An injury to fellow striker Lawrence Shankland over the Christmas period turned out a blessing for Boyce.
He started in the 2-2 draw with Ross County, grabbing an assist; he retained his place for the 1-0 win over Motherwell at the turn of the year and was instrumental in Hearts’ 1-0 away win at Dundee United.
Boyce’s inclusion from the start coincided with Hearts’ upturn in fortunes in the Scottish Premier but it was never likely to lead to him staying at the club.
The dye had been cast.
“The last week was brilliant for me because I got to play three games and it was good to show people that I’m actually still good at football.
“If I’d left the week before it probably would have been a completely different reaction – maybe I would have been chased out the door because I wasn’t playing.
“But playing in my last week I received a lot of nice messages. It was just a better way of leaving - you’re leaving with better memories.”
Boyce was a hugely popular figure among the Hearts faithful during his five years there.
The social media reaction upon his departure was positively affectionate, with one Hearts fan posting memorable footage of Boyce leaving Scott Brown for dust after a typically fabulous piece of skill.
He was the club’s top scorer when they clinched promotion back to the Scottish Premiership in the 2020/21 season and played a key role in the Jambos reaching the 2022 Scottish Cup final, eventually going down 2-0 to Rangers after extra-time.
Time rushes by so fast. When Cliftonville were winning back-to-back league titles in 2013 and ‘14, former Glenavon manager Gary Hamilton summed it up best.
“Cliftonville have got Liam Boyce. That’s the difference.”
After coming back from an unsuccessful but instructive spell with Werder Bremen’s reserve team in his youth, Cliftonville fans were spoiled rotten for a couple of unforgettable seasons.
In Boyce, the Reds had unearthed a player of magnificent, peerless quality. He was the street footballer we all dreamed of being – but only he could transfer those uncoachable skills onto the biggest stages.
He was the magician who put bums on seat every Saturday afternoon. The artist, the alchemist, the difference.
Together, Boyce and Joe Gormley were a sight to behold.
The great Tommy Breslin coached them without saying a word. He just let them play.
And Solitude rocked like never before.
Boyce was always too good for the Irish League to hold onto and off he went to Ross County in 2014 ready to show the maverick in him to a wider audience.
The jump from part-time to full-time football was initially tough though. Derek Adams, his first manager at Ross County, used him sparingly until he got himself into better shape.
“Then Jim McIntyre came into Ross County and we won the cup. Jim said: ‘You’re playing.’
Boyce forced his way into the Northern Ireland team too but a wrist injury dampened his chances of gaining a place in Michael O’Neill’s Euro 2016 finals squad.
Still, he kept ripping it up at Ross County, finishing top of the Scottish Premiership scoring charts in 2016/17, eclipsing all the big investments at Celtic and Rangers.
There was idle chat that maybe Celtic would take a punt on him.
“It was just talk and where I come from,” Boyce says. “My family are Celtic fans and it was more people wanting to see it happening. Celtic were buying players for £6m and playing Champions League.
“It would have taken a mad set of circumstances for it to happen. I think it was in people’s heads that I was too much of a gamble and hadn’t done it at that level.”
Down south, Burton Albion were making strides under Nigel Clough and they splashed out a record £500,000 fee on Scottish football’s top scorer in June 2017.
Injury, though, seriously curtailed him there but when he was fit, he never lost that unerring ability of finding the back of the net.
All the while time raced by.
A move back to Scotland beckoned; that shimmy inside, that left-footed finish to sink Rangers and that impeccable knee slide.
The Hearts faithful embraced this curious maverick from Belfast who could dribble around you in a phone box.
Then, bang - you’re 33 and surplus to requirements in a place you nearly called home.
Players like Liam Boyce are born, not moulded.
It speaks ill of modern-day coaching practices when players of Boyce’s ilk are being erased from whiteboards and game-plans because the coach grapples with their unique talent.
“I’d say there is less space for that type of player,” Boyce says.
“Everyone looks at Pep’s teams and how he’s won so much playing a certain way and getting his players to do a certain thing.
“Teams want to win first and that’s where the focus is going to be. And when you do lose the ball, you are already set up to win the ball back in five seconds. It’s the way trophies are being one.
“It’s not football as I remember it. When I was at Cliftonville you did what you wanted to do because we felt we were the better team.
“But it’s the pressure that comes with being a manager nowadays – the money and the expectation of fans.
“I remember one coach saying, ‘If you don’t win in seven, your head is on the chopping block.’ I think that happened to Robbie Neilson [at Hearts].
“If they don’t win in seven or eight, they’re gone. It’s just the way football is. You don’t get time to build anything and the club is on its arse when you go in.”
Boyce adds: “Nigel Clough was old school and talked about when we didn’t have the ball, you need to run back and do this. If you want freedom when you have the ball, this is what you need to do…'
“You can’t have your forwards running about trying mad flicks and not chasing back. There’s a balance.
“You obviously need to put the team first and when you get into the final third, people don’t want to watch players doing the same thing over and over and over again.
“You do need to allow for that bit of creativity and people to be themselves as long as they’re willing to do the work when it doesn’t come off.
“I’ve always said, if I get the ball, it only needs to work once, but the other times I give it away I need to be there to help the team.”
Boyce still possesses a child-like love for football and wants to add a couple of signature years to his career up at Derry City.
He’s a player made for the Brandywell and Tiernan Lynch is the perfect managerial foil.
Ask him what he would be doing if he hadn’t made it at his chosen sport, he smiles: “My family laugh because I haven’t had to work a day in my life and tell me I wouldn’t last a day in an office.
“That’s why I count myself so lucky. I went to school and got A Levels and started going to university but never really had a clear thought of what I wanted to do.
“I was so lucky to get the chance to play football and show what I can do. That’s what I’m most proud of so far.”
On Valentine’s Day, a new era begins in Derry City.
And the pleasure will most certainly belong to those who come to watch this curious maverick from Belfast.
