My Perfect Cousin: Liam Boyce's big welcome into the Derry City family

​Belfast men Carl Winchester, Liam Boyce, Gavin Whyte and Tamnaherin native Shane Ferguson, all felt it was time to come home after - in most cases - more than a decade on the road.

Several cited family reasons for their decision to return to Ireland and the timing of Lynch's arrival at Derry City couldn't have been any better for Boyce who quickly discussed buying a house in Belfast with his wife Leoncha.

Boyce first left Belfast for a 13 month spell in Germany with Werder Bremen in 2010 and for a second time in 2014 as he went on to represent Ross County, Burton Albion and Hearts.

Despite offers to continue in the SPL this year, the father of two young kids, Scout and Ziggy, opted to join Lynch at the Candy Stripes where he would be closer to family than he initially thought.

He didn't arrive until a few weeks later but his 'cousin' Carl Winchester joined from Shrewsbury Town after deciding it was time to call time on almost 15 years playing at the top levels in England.

Gavin Whyte, who left Portsmouth to return closer to his family, lives beside Boyce's mum's house in Belfast while Ferguson he knew well from the Northern Ireland set-up. Therefore it hasn't been much of an upheaval since departing Edinburgh in the January Transfer Window.

"To be fair it's been actually really easy especially with Gavin, Carl, 'Fergie' and all the new signings. I sort of knew them and Carl and Gavin live two minutes from my mum's so I've known them well anyway. In fact Carl's my second cousin which is good. My mum and his mum are cousins so we always called each other 'cuz' from when we were younger.

"I've also played against half the players in Scotland - obviously Mark [Connolly], Paul McMullan and Danny Mullen so it's just been really easy.

"I think it's just an Irish thing, your fellow Irish man is your best mate. So it's been a good start and hopefully it continues."

Boyce has yet to get off the mark in pre-season but he's hoping he's saved his goals for when the real business starts on Friday night.

"I haven't scored in any of the games I've played so far and my wife always says to me no matter where I've been I haven't scored in preseason but when it gets to the season I usually start scoring and I'm hoping that trend continues."

With Pat Hoban, Danny Mullan and Sean Patton also to choose from, Boyce doesn't think goals will be an issue for this exciting new City squad.

"The players we have, it's great competition. Pat's scored a lot of goals, Danny has scored a lot of goals in Scotland too. I'm here and wee Sean has been unbelievable in preseason and he's only 18. That's the competition you need if you want to get to where we want to get to.

"I just think having that competition all around the pitch, we could make six subs and wouldn't notice the difference in the attacking areas.

"That's only going to stand us in good stead because if someone isn't in good form there's someone waiting there to go in and take your spot.”

Opening night of the 2025 campaign takes Derry to champions Shelbourne and Boyce is relishing his first test as a City player.

"That's the games you want to be involved in as a player.

"Obviously it's my first game in the League of Ireland and playing the champions is a big opportunity.

"We know it's going to be difficult and the atmosphere will be tough. They will be still celebrating winning the league but it's 11 v 11 on the pitch. We'll go in there with a game plan and try to execute that as well as we can and hopefully win the game."