Derry's Liam Boyce to miss rest of season

Derry City suffered a major blow ahead of tomorrow night’s home clash against St Patrick’s Athletic, with the news that striker Liam Boyce will miss the remainder of the season.

The frontman had an operation last Saturday on his hamstring injury, which he picked up in the recent Sports Direct FAI Cup penalty shoot-out loss to holders Drogheda United.

Boyce, who has scored 11 goals in all competitions this season, picked up the hamstring problem during extra-time against Kevin Doherty’s men.

The Candystripes will also be missing Jamie Stott, Carl Winchester and Ben Doherty through suspension, while Mark Connolly and Danny Mullen are also struggling for the encounter against the Saints.

“There'll be a couple of changes this week,” confirmed boss Tiernan Lynch. “We have a few suspensions in the camp and we have a couple of injuries and a couple of niggles which will be late calls. Obviously, Liam Boyce is now out for the remainder of the season. He had an operation on Saturday.

“But listen, you have to take the positives because there’s good players in our team that maybe haven’t got minutes as of late and have been chomping at the bit to get on the pitch and show the Brandywell crowd what they’re all about and this is their opportunity to go and take that.”

In the last meeting between the sides, it was actually Boyce’s first half header, which sealed the points for City and that loss for the last time Stephen Kenny’s men suffered a defeat in the league.

In fact, the former Hearts centre-forward’s goal at Richmond Park that evening in June was the last goal the Dubliners have conceded in the Premier Division; keeping five clean-sheets on the bounce in the league and they’ve picked up 11 points during their recent unbeaten run.

St Pat’s currently sit four points adrift of third placed Derry and because of that it’s expected they’ll come to the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium aiming to close the gap in their pursuit of securing European football 2025.

“St Pat’s are a team bang in form at the moment,” stated Lynch.

“Four wins on the bounce and not conceding too many goals and scoring goals so it’s going to be a difficult one but this is why we’re in this. It’s these challenges you want to face.”

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Derry has a fantastic record against the Saints winning seven games of their last nine encounters.

“It’s going to be slightly different from Drogheda and Galway. They’re a team that likes to get on the ball and like to play. They like a little bit of time and space. We have to go in with a slightly different game plan and look at the areas we feel can hurt Pats,” added the Belfast man.

“We have a good record against them this season. As every week I couldn’t ask any more of the players as regards work ethic going into Friday night and hopefully, we’ll be able to kick on from there.”