Liam Boyce feeling sharper than ever as Derry City eye top spot in the table
The Northern Ireland international has appeared in all but two of the Candystripes' 14 games so far and, after a difficult start to life at his new club, he is now flourishing.
Regular game time has helped him sharpen his match fitness to the point where his confidence has been rejuvenated.
'We all worked hard pre-season, and I actually said to Tiernan (Lynch) that, after having a few injuries over the past few years, this is probably the best I've felt and the sharpest I've felt on the pitch, and like I could run all day,' he stated.
'He has asked us to give everything we have and if we're tiring, because of the squad we have, someone else will come on and keep the standards at that height. It's good for us and we're all feeling good and we're resting and recovering well and we have a big one again on Friday.'
There are noticeable parallels between Boyce's and Derry's season so far, with the striker and the team struggling to settle in during the first set of games only to bounce back from unexpected lows strongly.
The ex-Cliftonville man was red-carded last month against Drogheda United just 60 seconds after scoring his first goal for the club on his eighth appearance, but he admits he used that low as motivation to bounce back strongly, adding two more goals in his last three games.
'I scored my first goal and I was buzzing, and then I made a stupid decision and we ended up getting beat,' he recalled. 'You blame yourself for the defeat, but I just came back and tried to work harder than I did before.
'You don't want to let your team-mates down, especially when they're working so hard. You want to score goals and win games and create chances.
'That gave me a wee nudge, because that cost us three points basically because we were winning 1-0 and I thought we were comfortable until then so it gave me an extra bit of motivation to come back and try and help the boys.'
Derry could well climb to the top of the Premier Division with a third successive League win at Turner's Cross and Boyce is determined to play his part.
'I think it's that battling for each other and that mentality going into games that has changed,' he added.
'I think we all thought after the Waterford game that that's what we were lacking in that game, so it's been a real emphasis on that and you can see in the last two games we've had two clean sheets against two really good teams, and that's just testament to the fight that we have for each other.'
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