Huddersfield Town’s new signing from Cheltenham Town Will Boyle’s career story so far

“I’ve never met anyone as resilient as me.” Will Boyle has been forced to deal with his fair share of setbacks, including twice being deemed surplus to requirements at Huddersfield Town.

But after finalising his move from Cheltenham Town back to the Terriers this week, the 26-year-old defender is not about to let this opportunity pass him by. Born in Garforth, Boyle trained with Huddersfield’s development centre from the age of nine, but he was not taken on by the club’s academy.

He joined Bradford City’s centre of excellence at 10 and spent 18 months there, representing Leeds City Boys from Under-11s on a Saturday and Bradford on Sundays. The City team comprised the best school players in the area and has helped produce the likes of Micah Richards and ex-Robins captain John Finnigan.

Will Boyle (in white) played as a midfielder and a striker in youth football before becoming a central defender

“Bradford wanted me to stop playing on Saturdays so I had to pick one or the other and I enjoyed Leeds City Boys so I stuck with them and just played Sunday League football,” Boyle says. His talent was spotted by Sheffield Wednesday and he joined their academy at 12, but was released at 14.

“I was a striker then and I chipped in with a few goals, but Wednesday moved me to centre-half and then released me saying I couldn’t head the ball and would never be good enough in the air to play for their first team, which seems ironic now!” Boyle jokes.

He was offered a trial at Huddersfield’s academy at Under-15s level along with school mates Jake Charles and Tim Robertson and this time he was taken on. “I wanted to play in midfield as that’s where I’d played for Leeds City Boys and in Sunday football,” he recalls. “But Huddersfield quickly moved me to centre-back during the trial and I’ve never really left.

“Jake, Joe Wright (who went on to play for Doncaster Rovers) and I would get two trains and a bus to training every morning before we could drive and after that we shared the driving.” Tony Carss, Chris Howarth and Graham Mitchell were some of the influential figures in Boyle’s days in the Terriers’ youth set-up.

He was at the 2012 League One play-off final at Wembley to watch Huddersfield defeat Sheffield United on penalties. “Getting into the Championship seemed massive at the time and the club had been pushing for a while under Lee Clark, who had an unbelievable unbeaten run,” Boyle says.

“When I was a scholar, it was a mid to lower Championship club and staving off relegation would be seen as a success. Nobody would have expected the Premier League.” His best mate Charles had been tied down on a professional contract early amid interest from Manchester City and Newcastle United, while Boyle was left waiting until the end of the season.

“I felt confident because as a first year scholar I’d played in the youth team nearly every week,” he says. “In my second year, I’d captained the team and we won Premier League 2 North, losing in the south versus north final to QPR, so we’d done well and I felt I was highly thought of.”

Boyle impressed during a reserve team friendly against Everton at Finch Farm, when he was marking Nigerian international Victor Anichebe. “I remember Phil Neville also played and David Moyes was watching on the sidelines,” Boyle says. “It was just to get some of the first team lads some minutes, but it was a big moment for me because I did all right. I also played for the Under-23s as a first year scholar, which didn’t happen that often.”

Boyle was taken on as a pro and thrived under the coaching of Frankie Bunn and Steve Eyre and he was sent out for his first loan experience with Kidderminster Harriers at the end of the 2014/15 campaign. By that time he had already appeared briefly in the Championship for Huddersfield. “I went on in the last minute when we were 3-0 up at home to Reading and I didn’t touch the ball!” he says.

“Chris Powell was the manager and we had a lot of injuries. At 3-0 up, he basically turned to Steve Ayre and said ‘which of the young lads has the best attitude and deserves to make their debut?’ and I was sent on, so it was a token thing really.”

Boyle’s loan at Kidderminster did not go to plan, but his contract was extended for a second year. He joined Macclesfield Town at the start of the 2015/16 season, but failed to make an appearance for the National League side, who were managed by John Askey. “I started to wonder where my next opportunity was going to come from and what level it’d be at,” Boyle admits.

After making a swift return to his parent club from Macclesfield, Boyle was playing against Leeds Under-23s at Thorp Arch, when he was spotted by League Two strugglers York City, who were managed by Jackie McNamara.

It was there that Boyle first played alongside goalkeeper Scott Flinders, with whom he went on to form a close friendship at Cheltenham. Russ Penn was their captain and fellow ex-Robins Keith Lowe and Luke Summerfield were also in the squad at Bootham Crescent.

“I played about six games and felt I did okay, but they were battling relegation so it was tough,” he says. Boyle was keen to remain with York for the rest of the season, but David Wagner had taken over as Huddersfield boss and the German was impressed by Boyle during a senior squad training camp in Marbella.

“I was recalled to be fourth choice centre-back after they sold Murray Wallace to Scunthorpe,” he says. “I trained with the first team every day for about two months and got on the pitch late on against Preston, but I realised I was going to get many opportunities and went back to York for more first team football.”

York dropped out of the Football League after a turbulent season and Boyle’s next move was to Kilmarnock of the Scottish Premiership for the start of the 2016/17 season. Killie were managed by Clark, who knew all about Boyle’s potential from his time with the Terriers.

“That was the first time I’d left home and I shared a flat near the stadium with Flo Bojaj, who was also on loan from Huddersfield,” Boyle says. “I played against Celtic, which was a proud moment with my dad being a big Celtic fan. We lost that 1-0, but we got a draw with Rangers, who had Joey Barton in their team and Joe Dodoo up front.

“I had a collision with the goalkeeper in training and suffered bad bone bruising in my heel, which was bothering me for six months and I remember struggling at that point because of the pain and being away from home. It’s all part of being a young footballer, but it was a testing time for me before I joined Cheltenham. I didn’t know if I wanted to carry on.

“I’d been with my partner Sian for two years and she was at university in Sheffield so we hardly saw each other, so it was a tough process. At 20, I definitely had doubts about whether I’d be able to forge a career, or if I wanted to, because my career hadn’t kick-started.”

Boyle returned to Huddersfield in January 2017 and after a week training with the Under-23s, the club made it clear his contract would not be renewed the following summer and he was free to leave. “Pete Johnson (Cheltenham head of recruitment) had seen me playing in the FA Youth Cup for Huddersfield against Fulham, who had Patrick Roberts and Moussa Dembélé playing,” Boyle says.

“I think he also saw me play for the Under-23s against Crystal Palace or one of the London clubs, so he was aware of me and it went from there. When I spoke to Gary Johnson, he specifically referred to the way I’d handled Dembélé against Celtic so they probably saw me play against him twice and liked what they saw.”

Cheltenham were struggling in their first season back in League Two, having won the National League the previous year, but Boyle had no hesitation in signing an 18-month deal in Gloucestershire. “The position was precarious, but Gary said I’d be backed and we’d turn things around and that was good enough for me,” he says. “If the club had been relegated, I could have left on a free.”

Boyle was one of several January additions as Johnson broke up the 2015/16 title-winning squad, with Scott Brown, Carl Winchester, Emmanuel Onariase and Tin Plavotic among those to arrive. “Gary used to put up a league table from January onwards and I think we were about 11th in that by the end of the season,” Boyle says. His debut saw Cheltenham thrash Leicester City Under-21s 6-1 in the EFL Trophy and they beat 10-man Accrington Stanley 3-0 in his first league appearance four days later.

Will Boyle on his Cheltenham Town debut in January 2017 (Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

“It wasn’t a bad start!” he says. “I remember it being a brilliant group straight away. There was obviously a bond between the lads from what they’d achieved the year before and they were close on and off the pitch. I craved being a part of something like that at the time. I’d worked under what you might call a ‘volatile’ manager in Lee Clark and Gary was definitely in that mould, but it didn’t intimidate or worry me. Frankie Bunn was also like that, even at Under-18s level, so I was prepared for it.”

Boyle scored his first goal in a 3-2 win at promotion-chasing Luton Town and quickly established himself in the starting XI. Off the pitch, he stayed at Robins chairman Paul Baker’s house along with Brentford loanee Onariase, who was later replaced as the second lodger by Flinders. “I hit it off with Paul and he let me do my own thing so I was comfortable there,” Boyle says.

He had started a degree in business management during his time at Kilmarnock and he continued to study around his football commitments. “I’ve always enjoyed learning and been a very inquisitive person,” he says. “My partner’s dad retired from the police and set up his own micro-brewery and I was particularly interested in the business side, so after chatting to the PFA I decided to start a course.”

Boyle had made 13 appearances for Cheltenham when Johnson was forced to undergo triple heart bypass surgery, missing the remaining 11 games of the season, with the threat of relegation looming. “I remember Gary’s face popping up on a screen in our meeting room at the hotel before a game, which was surreal,” Boyle says.

“He probably should have been recovering and taking it easy, but it showed me how much it meant to him and how important football was in his life because he was still trying to help us constantly from hospital, which is unbelievable really. He was still running things from behind the scenes and Russ (Milton) tried to maintain a positive environment.”

Boyle hit it off with midfielder Kyle Storer immediately and the two remain good friends. “We ended up rooming together and Stoz was a real leader in the group,” he says. “I respect him a lot and I also got on well with Downesy (Aaron Downes) because we have a similar work ethic. I’ve always tended to be drawn more to the senior pros, probably because of the type of character I am. It was a tight-knit group, but not cliquey and I am still in touch with a lot of those lads now.”

Cheltenham stayed up, securing survival with a tense 1-0 home win over Hartlepool United on the penultimate Saturday of the season and they hoped for an improvement in 2017/18. Boyle was accused of “always being on the floor” by Johnson and he worked hard to add some weight to his naturally slender frame without sacrificing any mobility. He believes some of his injuries have been due to overtraining, such is his commitment to the cause.

He scored one of his favourite goals that season, a booming header against Charlie Raglan’s Port Vale in a 5-1 Whaddon Road win. Mo Eisa fired 23 goals in 45 league appearances, but Cheltenham finished a disappointing 17th. “We should have done better,” Boyle admits.

“We had a lot of inconsistencies in our performances and there was a lot of chopping and changing. Gary liked to tinker and it didn’t help with building relationships. There wasn’t a clear idea of the way we wanted to play as a team as there has been since the gaffer (Michael Duff) took over and it was more ad hoc, which probably explains the inconsistency.”

The squad underwent a major overhaul in the summer of 2018 and Boyle started the campaign at centre-half in a back four next to new arrival Johnny Mullins. After opening the season with three 1-0 defeats, Johnson was sacked immediately after a 1-1 draw at Macclesfield Town.

“I remember the gaffer had done his debrief in the dressing room and a few of the lads noticed some of the directors in the tunnel so we started to put two and two together,” Boyle recalls. “Gary went to speak to them and we knew something was happening. It quickly filtered back that he’d been sacked and then he was on the coach with the lads on the way home, which was a strange atmosphere. I don’t know why they didn’t just call a meeting for the next day.”

After a brief spell in caretaker charge for Milton, Duff was appointed in September 2018 and Boyle was immediately impressed with what he saw and heard from the new manager. “I was on the bench for Huddersfield away to Burnley so I’d seen him play and was aware of his career from afar,” Boyle says. “I remember introducing myself and he said ‘I know a lot more about you than you know about me’ which I think he said to a lot of the lads!

“He swore a lot in those first couple of weeks, pretty much every other word, trying to get the group’s attention and show his authority. But there was a clear and obvious structure that I hadn’t been a part of before. My eyes lit up and I was like ‘wow’ because his detail and organisation were above anything I’d seen before. He listed his ‘non-negotiables’ and even the way meetings were held was fresh and new. I tried to be a sponge and absorb everything.

“He told us things he’d been taught and how it had helped his previous team (Burnley) achieve things they shouldn’t really have achieved. He said ‘I couldn’t run, but I played at the top level and it worked for me, so whether your opponent is fast or slow, it doesn’t matter as long as you do these things properly’. The more coaching he did, the more detail he dropped in and I saw what a massive opportunity it was going to be for me. I was like a dog with a bone.”

After a visit from the Marines to the club’s training ground, a leadership group was established and Boyle was a founding member. The switch to 3-5-2, with Ben Tozer in the middle of the backline, proved to be the catalyst for a rapid improvement and they ended up 16th at the end of Duff’s first season.

“Toze moving from midfield was massive,” Boyle says. “He’d been a centre-half early in his career, but was scrapping as a defensive midfielder in League Two before he came to us and then he was out of the picture. He was thrown into the back three and the whole game was in front of him. He is good technically and would take the ball and he could play with freedom.

“Me and what could be seen as another more stereotypical centre-half were either side of him doing all we could defensively for him and he grew into a real leader in possession, dictating the way we played. He could also hit a ‘diag’ from anywhere and we realised it could be a massive tool for us so we worked on it continuously. He was brilliant.”

Boyle soon realised he had more freedom to attack down the left, adding another dimension to his game. “I often didn’t need to protect anything behind me, so I joined in and sometimes it was good and sometimes it was bad, but we were coached on it and had clear patterns as to how and when to do it,” he says.

“Everyone enjoyed the progress we made that season and I had a sniff that something good was happening because the place was so much more professional and the club was maximising everything they could. I was pleased to be a part of it really.”

By the time the 2019/20 season came around, Boyle was sharing a house with Flinders in Cheltenham town centre. They were coffee regulars in Boston Tea Party and it was there that a pre-match ritual began. “We tried a board game called Touring England one week and carried on playing it every Friday afternoon before home games,” Boyle says. Our Whatsapp group is now called The Tour! Grimesy (Jamie Grimes) used to bring his dog along and play and we have invited pretty much all the lads over the years.

“Toze and Reg (Luke Varney) used to stay with Longy (Sean Long) in the club house on Friday nights so they were always involved and Rags (Charlie Raglan) is a regular too. At one stage there were eight or nine lads there playing and we’ve kept the coffee club going. The game disappeared out of Boston after Covid so Longy went and bought his own and it’s been in his boot all season!”

The choice of coffee house has now changed, but the game remains a key part of their pre-match relaxation, although it would often become highly competitive. “It’s pretty much a game of luck like snakes and ladders and the loser picks up the bill for everyone. Scotty never used to lose so we’d batter him and say he was cheating. Rags has brought his twin girls along so it’s a family affair too. I might have to travel down one Friday and have a game for old time’s sake!”

The close-knit nature of the group fostered by Duff was evident throughout 2019/20 as Cheltenham pushed for automatic promotion, but they had to settle for a play-off place after the season was cut short by Covid. During lockdown, Cheltenham’s players were given recordings of teams using a similar formation, including Sheffield United, Wolves and Inter Milan.

After weeks of uncertainty, they took on Northampton and led 2-0 after the first leg at Sixfields, but it all went wrong in the return match as the Cobblers claimed a 3-0 win, with Boyle at fault for what proved to be the winner. He faced the media after the crushing disappointment and vowed to use the setback as motivation to go one better in 2020/21 and he looks back proudly on how he and the team responded.

“I don’t think it had a massive impact on me and I didn’t have any doubts about bouncing back, even though it was bitterly disappointing,” he says. “I’ve worked with a sports psychologist for several years and I’ve not met anyone as resilient as me. I know that I will be doing the best I can in any given moment with the resources I have and I love the poem about the man in the mirror because ultimately at the end of my career I will be content with myself because I’ll have given it everything, whatever comes of it and no stone will have been left unturned.

“I actually watched my interview back and at the time it was pure emotion, but I was talking from the heart and we did really want to use it as fuel. I said it could be a catalyst in my career and that’s gone on to happen, so I am quite proud looking back. I say things I mean and wouldn’t say something I don’t think I can back up or go out and do.”

Cheltenham and Boyle, who has made meditation a part of his preparation for games, delivered. They won the League Two title in 2020/21 and enjoyed a memorable FA Cup fourth round tie against Manchester City. He was named in the Sky Bet League Two and the PFA League Two teams of the year for his performances alongside Tozer and Raglan, flanked by wing-backs Matty Blair and Chris Hussey in what proved to be a formidable defensive unit.

“We won the league because we had a mix of everything,” Boyle says. “We could do every side of the game well, in and out of possession and in transition. If teams wanted a scrap, we could match them and we had ultimate togetherness to do whatever it took in each match. We had a set plan, we were organised and we gave ourselves a platform in most games.”

For most of his time at Cheltenham, Boyle has been an automatic starter, but there were spells when Grimes and later Jacob Greaves kept him on the bench. He believes his impressive goalscoring record is a major asset along with his defensive attributes.

Overtaking Jamie Victory as Cheltenham’s highest scoring defender with 23 is something Boyle was particularly proud to achieve in his final campaign with the club. “I remember when I first signed, Downesy had a decent scoring record himself and he told me that as a left-sided centre-half who scored regularly, I was like rocking horse s***!” Boyle says.

“Goals are definitely a part of why I’ve ended up where I am now because it’s ultimately what the game is about. My goal (to make it 4-4 in the 96th minute) at Accrington last season may have been the best for a neutral, or the hardest to pull off, but I prefer headed goals, personally!”

Boyle missed most of the second half of Cheltenham’s title-winning season, although he did return with two goals in two games over Easter. There was speculation about his future over the summer, but nothing materialised. “If I’d finished the 2020/21 season fit, there is a good chance I’d have gone last summer,” he says. “I’d not trained for seven weeks, trained twice and played two games in four days and that was a lesson for me because it wasn’t right for my body.

“Obviously speculation about your future is unsettling, but I was never wanting away or not focused on what I was doing. I was a bit disappointed with how last season finished because we were 12th for a while and then it petered out a bit. Finishing 15th in League One still made history, but it would have been nice to look at the table and only see Championship-sized clubs or bigger above us. At one stage, there was no way you should look down and see Cheltenham Town next after that list of clubs.

“But there has been gradual progression since I’ve been here and I think we were second from bottom in League Two when I arrived. I feel I’ve played a part in it and done my best to help everyone else, so it’s a satisfying feeling to have the success we’ve had and I’ve enjoyed it as well, doing it with people I can class as lifelong friends.”

Will Boyle has re-signed for Huddersfield Town after five-and-a-half years with Cheltenham Town (Image: John Early/Getty Images)

It has been a particularly eventful time for Boyle since the season finished. Not only has he completed his move to Huddersfield and completed the final assignment of his degree, but he also proposed to long-term partner Sian on holiday in Santorini last weekend.

“I am forever grateful to Cheltenham as a club and a town,” he says. “Sian and I lived together for the first time in Cheltenham and we have fallen in love with the area. As soon as Huddersfield’s interest came in, my decision was made on where I’d be going next and all other conversations were irrelevant. Putting all emotional attachment aside, it’s the best move from a footballing perspective and if Carlsberg did moves…

“They have just finished third in the Championship so I am going to a great club and it’s the perfect place for me to continue my development. I will keep pushing myself, trying to learn all I can from Carlos and see where it takes me. But I’d like to thank everyone at Cheltenham because we’ve been on a journey together for five-and-a-half years and from start to finish it’s been on an upward trajectory.

“Regardless of whether they think I am good enough or not, or if I deserve this move or not, I thank the fans for supporting me while I gave my best for the club and I wish everyone connected with the club all the best for the future. As corny as it may sound, I am a Cheltenham fan for the rest of my life now and I will be back to the town, there is no doubt about that.”

Read More Related Articles Read More Related Articles