ROSS County striker Liam Boyce has been fitted with a temporary cast as he races against time to prove his fitness for the League Cup semi-final against Celtic. The 24-year-old from Belfast, a one-time trialist at the Parkhead club, has scored 17 goals in 24 appearances this season, but has not featured so far this year after sustaining a broken hand during the 3-2 victory against Kilmarnock at the end of December.
While Alex Schalk and Brian Graham have been deputising effectively in his absence, McIntyre revealed that Boyce had come through a full training session unscathed and could be worth the risk. “He got his cast off yesterday and is available to play," said manager Jim McIntyre. "It’s healing very well and he will have a temporary cast that he’s allowed to play with so we’ll see how he is.
"He trained the full session yesterday and looked okay," the County manager added. "Obviously when he’s strapped up he’s not running as freely as he might be but we’ll give him another couple days and then see if we think it’s worth that risk. He’s scored 17 in 24 games and against a side like Celtic, you have to take your chance - having said that, he missed a sitter with his head the last time!"
McIntyre also faces a dilemma over whether to include defender Paul Quinn, who re-signed for the club this week from Aberdeen, in the biggest match of his season so far. The 30-year-old's six months at Pittodrie included scoring the winner against Celtic in the league and the County boss is swithering over whether to pitch him into battle. “Obviously he hasn’t played a lot of football in the last month, so we need to weigh up that factor, but for the long haul, we’ve signed him for 18 months and are delighted to get him back."
While the build-up to the match is inevitably dominated by memories of County's 2010 Scottish Cup victory between these two teams, McIntyre wants his players to write their own history on Sunday. While the Parkhead side can be susceptible in these showpiece matches at Hampden, so far in the head-to-head this season County have lost 2-0 at Celtic Park on the opening day and 4-1 at Victoria Park in November.
"Much has been made of getting to the final in 2010 and rightly so, but this is a different team and we want to try and make our own memories and give a good account of ourselves," said McIntyre. "We have to believe we can win the match. In both our games against them this season we’ve created chances but whether it has been good saves from Craig Gordon or poor finishing from us, we have to take those chances on Sunday. We know Celtic are a top side and the expectation is that they have to win every game. The pressure is firmly on them."
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