Ross County manager Jim McIntyre believes leading scorer Liam Boyce’s lack of goals since the turn of the year should not lessen his claim to be part of Northern Ireland’s squad for this summer’s European championship finals in France.
Boyce got his campaign off to a blistering start, netting 17 goals prior to suffering a broken hand towards the end of the calendar year but since returning in late January he has scored just once in 15 games.
The attacker has forced his way into the thoughts of Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill, with the latest of his six caps coming in his country’s 1-0 friendly win against Latvia at Windsor Park in November.
McIntyre claims Boyce merits a place in the squad, which will represent North Ireland at the European championship finals for the first time next month, and the Staggies manager said: “The only thing missing from Liam’s game just now is a goal.
“He’s not had a lot of chances. There have been a couple but there’s not been quite as many as what he was getting in the first half of the season.
“He’s done fantastically well this season, scoring the number of goals he has.
“Forwards always go through patches, but the one thing that doesn’t change is the quality Liam has got and, hopefully, he makes the squad. He deserves it.
“It would be massive having a player representing the club at the championship finals.”
Dutch attacker Alex Schalk has helped carry the goalscoring burden having scored eight times since the turn of the year, but the former Netherlands under-21 international is determined to play his part in helping Boyce book his ticket to France.
Schalk said: “I want every player here to be successful but Liam is hopefully in with a good chance of getting to the Euros – and seeing him playing there would be amazing.
“That would be reward for him, because he has been excellent for us. I would really enjoy seeing that.
“As team-mates, we’re keen to help him. Everyone in the squad tries to help each other all the time.
“Not just Liam, but obviously besides our ambition of finishing fourth or fifth, we want him to go to France.
“We will try to win those three games and get him in among the goals again. Hopefully, that will get him in the squad.
“It would not only be fantastic for himself but also for a club like Ross County to have someone at a major finals.”
