Liam Boyce happily admits he’d take never scoring another goal for Hearts in return for the Jambos winning every week.
But that doesn’t stop the Tynecastle hitman from targeting a 20-goal haul this season, having hit the halfway mark by the start of October.
Since then, injury has stalled the Northern Ireland attacker but he’s back fit, and he hopes firing, for tonight’s trip to Celtic where a win would put Boyce ’s side second in the table.
The striker was sorely missed during the three games he missed with a calf strain, prompting calls for Hearts to bring in another goalscorer as cover in January, but Boyce believes the Jambos have plenty of capable alternatives to him when he isn’t available.
He said: “It’s a hard one. When people talk about me it’s good but against Dundee United Gino (Josh Ginnelly) started up front and thought he was brilliant and Ben (Woodburn) scored two goals. It’s just different ways of playing.
"Against some teams we’re going to need different styles of play.
“If I was never to score again and we win every match I’d happily take that and be buzzing if someone else scores. We’re in football to win games and that is the aim no matter who is playing.
“But I’ve always said I want to get 10 before Christmas. I got it really early this year and then I got injured, but I still try stay positive. I still scored ten goals and that’s a good position to be in.
“I just try to take it game by game, after the game on Saturday I was disappointed that I didn’t score. I probably could’ve scored two in that game. You try to save that frustration to keep you sharp for when the next chance comes in the next game.
“It takes one goal. You need to keep getting in the right positions. Coming back from injury if I wasn’t making those runs or getting those balls slipped into me you don’t know when the next chance is going to come. I’ve still been getting chances and I know it is on me. I know I just need to sharpen up a wee bit and concentrate on my first touch and take my chance.”
Hearts intend to have a go at Celtic Park and that suits Boyce just fine.
“I’ve played in teams that have gone there and set up defensively,” he said.
“It’s just more enjoyable playing in a team that believes they can go on and win the game.
“We’ve no reason not to believe in ourselves. Apart from the Motherwell and Aberdeen games where we didn’t show what we can do, against every other team we’ve had spells in the game.
“Even the Rangers game, we were 1-0 down at half time, but we came out in the second half and I thought there was 20/25 minutes where we were the more dominant team and I thought we probably should’ve scored before we did.”
