Derry City's Ronan Boyce wants goalscoring run to continue

The defender, who headed home Derry City’s opener at Cork City last Friday, has now scored 11 goals for the Candystripes, with five of those coming in April. Indeed he thinks netting another one against St Patrick's Athletic tonight would be a perfect way to finish his lucky month.

“I don’t know what the craic is in terms of me scoring in April, maybe it’s something to do with April fool,” he joked, “The main thing is the result against St Pat’s and hopefully we can get a positive one.

“This is our last game in April and if I finish with another goal I’ll be happy. Hopefully I can keep on scoring, but my main aim is to just try and help the team get results.”

The 21-year-old acknowledges both a Derry victory and another goal for himself will be tough tasks, especially given Tim Clancy’s side will be looking to bounce back from last week's home defeat to Shamrock Rovers.

“You could see that St Pat’s actually had turned the corner themselves, as they had gone on a good run before the Rovers game,” he added, “I don’t think they had the best start to the season but they turned it around and we know how good they are.

“They have a lot of talented individual players in their squad, so we know it’s going to be a tough game.”

The Ramelton native has been in and out of Ruaidhrí Higgins’ starting line-up and admits a small injury problem during pre-season knocked him back.

“I got a knock in pre-season and that didn’t help but you just have to batter on. Hopefully now I can keep trying to play well and impressive the manager,” he added. “I’ll be giving my all and hopefully I do my bit to help the team get a result.

“Over the last couple of years I’ve tried to work on my attacking side of my game because defending is probably the strongest part of my game. Now it’s just trying to piece all these things together to try and become a better footballer.

“Hopefully sooner rather than later, but over time I think I can become a better all round player.”

Boyce knows that he has to be on top of his game, not just for every match, but for every training session because he knows that the City squad is strong enough to make changes in any position.

“Look, you know yourself, if you’re not doing the business you’ll not be playing, it's as simple as that,” he explained.

“To be honest that's the way it should be and that’s what makes you better and that’s what drives you on. You know if you go out on a Friday night and you’re not at it, then you’ll not be playing in the next game.

“It’s all about getting your head right, just trying to put in a performance to help the team get a result.”

Following the St Pat’s encounter, Derry host champions Shamrock Rovers on Monday night, but Boyce is only focused on this evening’s clash.

“The two games coming up are massive but to be honest Monday night hasn't even came into our heads, we're just looking at the St Pat's game on Friday,” insisted the right-back.

“All our focus is just on trying to get a win over St Pat’s in front of our own fans.”