After serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, Boyd signed for Second Division club Plymouth Argyle, where he spent two seasons playing as an inside forward.
When he began playing as a wing half, a position to which he was better suited, he attracted attention, and soon secured a transfer to the First Division with Birmingham City for what was for Plymouth a record fee.
[2] He went straight into the first team as replacement for Frank Mitchell who had joined Chelsea earlier that month, and made his debut in a goalless draw away at Preston North End.
[9] When Fred Harris retired at the end of that season,[10] manager Bob Brocklebank appointed Boyd as his successor as club captain, a post which he retained for the remainder of his Birmingham career.
[11] Under Boyd's captaincy Birmingham reached the semifinals of the 1950–51 FA Cup, when they were defeated by the powerful Blackpool side of Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen only after a replay.
Manager Brocklebank significantly strengthened Birmingham's playing staff,[17] but although the club nearly reached another semifinal in the 1952–53 FA Cup, losing in the sixth round to Tottenham Hotspur after two replays, their league results failed to improve.
[18] In late 1954, Arthur Turner was appointed manager, and his ability to instil a positive approach in the players transformed a team stagnating in mid-table into one needing to win the last match of the season, away at Doncaster Rovers, in order to be promoted as champions on goal average.
[19]The same squad of players carried their promotion form into the 1955–56 season in the First Division, achieving the club's highest league finish of sixth place, and reaching the FA Cup final.
[18] They became attractive to the media; after the FA Cup semifinal victory, Boyd signed an exclusive contract committing himself and his teammates to appearing only on BBC programmes in the weeks leading up to the final.
[24] With Warhurst missing and Boyd out of position and not fully match-fit, Birmingham's strength and balance was disrupted, leaving them particularly vulnerable to Manchester City's unconventional style of play, known as the "Revie Plan".
Speaking fifty years later, goalkeeper Gil Merrick refused to attribute blame for the loss to Boyd's lack of fitness: The reason why we lost, in my opinion, was nothing to do with Boydy who some claimed was unfit.
Not risked in their first match in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, against Internazionale on a hard pitch in the San Siro,[30] he played in their next, a 1–0 win against a Zagreb Select XI in Yugoslavia.
... the towering young Smith, centre-half in the England Intermediate (Under 23) XI, is flanked by two men, Boyd and Warhurst, who keep the ball flowing forward quickly all the time.
Birmingham probably had the hardest defenders in the First Division in those days, with Len, Trevor Smith, Roy Warhurst, Jeff Hall and Ken Green – no one liked the idea of playing against them.
While his teammates flew to Birmingham's Fairs Cup match in Milan, Boyd travelled across the English Channel by boat and then across France and into Italy by train.