Steven Boyack Player Profile

Biography

Steven Boyack signed for the Dark Blues in the inaugural SPL season in March 1999 and he joined a side in danger of dropping down to the second tier at the first attempt.

The attacking midfielder came through the youth ranks at Rangers but his chances were limited at Ibrox, where he made just one substitute appearance for the first team. In an effort to get some game time Boyack went out on loan to Hull City in the English fourth tier as Dundee were winning the First Division but having failed to break through upon his return to Glasgow, opted to join Jocky Scott’s Dundee who paid Rangers £25,000 for his services.

Boyack was joining a side at the bottom of the Scottish Premier League after three successive defeats and in danger of going straight back down but their survival hopes were given a huge boost on his debut when the Dark Blues beat Hearts 2-0 at Dens thanks to an Eddie Annand double.

It was the Dark Blues’ fourth win over Hearts that season after the Dundee players were motivated from meeting the Hearts players on holiday in the close season who repeatedly called The Dees a pub team. It was sweet revenge to take 12 points out of 12 against the Jam Tarts and finish one place and four points ahead of them at the end of the campaign.

Boyack’s second game was a 2-1 win at Motherwell and the new number 34 followed this up with a terrific performance in the 1-1 ‘home’ draw with Rangers which was played at Tannadice due to the new stands being built behind the goals at Dens.

Scott had switched Dundee to a 4-3-3 formation with Boyack out on the right and on 22 minutes crossed for Ian Anderson to send a powerful header past Rangers keeper Stefan Klos. Tony Vidmar equalised for the Light Blues but The Dee held on for a valuable point and at the end of the match Rangers manager Dick Advocaat told the press that “on that form Dundee would have taken points from any team on the planet.”

Boyack, whose father was a life long Dee, had brought a touch of flair to the midfield and in the next match against Kilmarnock, back at Dens, beat three defenders before sending an inch perfect cross for Shaun McSkimming to head home the winner in a 2-1 win.

Next up it was back to Tannadice, this time to take on Dundee United and in injury time Boyack sent through a defence splitting pass to allow James Grady to slip the ball between Seib Dykstra’s legs and into the net to secure a famous 2-0. The win guaranteed that Dundee would finish above United for the first time in 25 years and they would finish the season in fifth to equal Dundee’s highest league finish since they won the league in 1962.

Boyack scored his first goals for the club in the next two games in a 2-1 victory at Pittodrie and a 3-1 home win over Dunfermline and he had been a key figure in propelling Dundee up the league to safety.

The following season Boyack played 41 times, scoring three times but when Ivano Bonetti came in as manager in the summer of 2000, Boyack’s days were number after the pair clashed on a training camp in the Italian Alps. In October he was sent out on loan to Ayr United and in January left Dens Park permanently when Hearts signed him for £50,000 – double what the Dark Blues had paid for him.

Boyack made his Hearts debut in 1-0 home win over St Mirren on January 31st 2001 and played 16 times before the end of the season with the final coming in a 2-0 win over Dundee at Tynecastle.

Boyack remained in Gorgie for the next three years and played 90 times for Hearts, scoring just once and in the summer of 2004 was released by the club in a cost cutting exercise alongside Scott Severin and Andy Kirk.

Boyack went on to play for four clubs in two years, namely Livingston, Boston United, Blackpool and Stirling Albion. He was initially released by Albion at the end of the 2005/06 season, but in August 2006 he was re-signed by the club after proving his fitness to manager Allan Moore.

Boyack then moved to the Junior leagues with Bathgate Thistle and in August 2009 was appointed Operations Director of a Scottish Recruitment Consultancy. After playing in the Scottish Caledonian Amateur League with Milton, who won their league in the 2009/10 season, Boyack moved to local rivals Bannockburn Amateur in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League before hanging up his boots in the summer of 2013.