Richard Latham

[Coach]

I have always assumed he was a City fan.

But for his report on yesterday's game he says Maynard "brought life to a dreary game going nowhere". That seems a bit weird for me, we were big underdogs on the day (after the last week and considering who we were playing and Gary's comments about them being the best team in the league) and I think the way we battled and competed ensured it was anything but dreary for us fans? I admit it wasn't total football but our desire and tackling was tremendous and coupled with his two-star ratings for Fontaine, Wilson & Elliott - four stars for McCallister! - I wonder if he was actually at the game!

I know ratings are a waste of time but Rovers only had one more 2-star player than us and they were by all accounts awful against L1 relegation fodder not CCC favourites and ex-Premier League. Yeovil too lost 2-1 and every player had 3 stars+ ... what exactly did Fontaine do wrong yesterday Richard? And one wing back 4 stars versus our other wing back's 2? Strange. Maybe you want to sit in an area of the ground with some atmosphere to wake you up??

[Andy Horsman]

I have always assumed he was a City fan.

But for his report on yesterday's game he says Maynard "brought life to a dreary game going nowhere". That seems a bit weird for me, we were big underdogs on the day (after the last week and considering who we were playing and Gary's comments about them being the best team in the league) and I think the way we battled and competed ensured it was anything but dreary for us fans? I admit it wasn't total football but our desire and tackling was tremendous and coupled with his two-star ratings for Fontaine, Wilson & Elliott - four stars for McCallister! - I wonder if he was actually at the game!

I know ratings are a waste of time but Rovers only had one more 2-star player than us and they were by all accounts awful against L1 relegation fodder not CCC favourites and ex-Premier League. Yeovil too lost 2-1 and every player had 3 stars+ ... what exactly did Fontaine do wrong yesterday Richard? And one wing back 4 stars versus our other wing back's 2? Strange. Maybe you want to sit in an area of the ground with some atmosphere to wake you up??

Quaint old paper as the West Country Independant is, their player ratings are always a bit bizarre. McAllister 4 stars, must have been wearing Stockhausen's beer goggles!!

[Tunley Legend]

I'm know Latham has predominantly been a City reporter over the years but I have found his assessments on City to be overly negative over the last eighteen months. I wonder whether he and GJ have had a "few words" and he is allowing his feelings towards the club at the moment to dominate his reporting?

You can't compare marks given to City and Rovers players on the same day as different reporters have different standards. Had Latham somehow been at both matches and given the same ratings out then the original poster would have had a valid point.

[Red Wardy]

Quaint old paper as the West Country Independant is, their player ratings are always a bit bizarre. McAllister 4 stars, must have been wearing Stockhausen's beer goggles!!

Stockhausen likes a drink then does he?

[Coach]

You can't compare marks given to City and Rovers players on the same day as different reporters have different standards. Had Latham somehow been at both matches and given the same ratings out then the original poster would have had a valid point.

That is obvious but thanks for bringing me to task over it anyway. The comparisons weren't my main point of the post, it was Latham's view of the City game and some of the players.

There isn't exactly a lot of leeway from 1 to 5 stars - well, 2 to 4 stars really as 1 & 5 are rarely given - so you'd think there'd be some consistency from one page of a newspaper to the next wouldn't you? I just mentioned Rovers and Yeovil to show that 2 stars really should be for a player who has quite badly underperformed, generally in a defeat I'd say. That cannot be said of Elliott and Fontaine, surely, and probably not even Wilson.

[Drew Peacock]

Stockhausen likes a drink then does he?

Only to relax him to make him a better driver.

I wouldn't have given Wilson a huge number of stars.

[slartibartfast]

He started tanking on about the low gate, saying we're 2k down on average (DUH, 2k S/T not taken up) and if Boro had not bought down a grand it would have looked worse!!

Ok mr thicky hack, so NO team bought any fans LAST year then? I think you'll find (if you bother to research) that it was about average away attendance, so the crowds aren't overtly down, are they!

[Nibor]

I believe Richard Latham used to be paid a retainer by the club as a media consultant.

He is no longer on the staff list:

http://www.bcfc.co.uk/page/WhosWho/0,,10327,00.html

He is not and never has been a fan.

Draw your own conclusions.

[Ron]

He used to present BCFC World, can't believe I'd forgotten that.

[Robbored]

I actually agree that yesterdays game was dreary. Not much goal mouth action at either end. Both sides struggling to break each other down. Too many long balls form City and too many misplaced passes form Boro. The referee was alright tho'.

Some on here seem to be getting carried by the nature of the win. Two superb goals from Maynard and the winner in injury time cloud what was actually dull game. Both side worked hard but there was a serious lack of quality play untill Maynards fisrt goal. There won't much of a highlight package.

I thought it was a mediocre perfomance against mediocre opposition. It was Maynard that was the difference.

[StapleHillPhil]

I actually agree that yesterdays game was dreary. Not much goal mouth action at either end. Both sides struggling to break each other down. Too many long balls form City and too many misplaced passes form Boro. The referee was alright tho'.

Some on here seem to be getting carried by the nature of the win. Two superb goals from Maynard and the winner in injury time cloud what was actually dull game. Both side worked hard but there was a serious lack of quality play untill Maynards fisrt goal. There won't much of a highlight package.

I thought it was a mediocre perfomance against mediocre opposition. It was Maynard that was the difference.

As much as it pains me to say it, I agree with you entirely on this one. Other than two moments of magic from Maynard, the game was dull and uninspiring and with City playing 7 defensive outfield players it was little wonder that we created sod all. We got lucky with a couple of long range punts down the middle that should have been dealt with by the Boro defence.

[Ron]

Yeah Boro are really mediocre, absolutely terrible. David Wheater, Adam Johnson, Julio Arca, Emnes... PAH!

Did you think all those boring Top 4 Premier League matches were mediocre matches between mediocre opposition? I'm not saying we're top 4 quality, but you know exactly what my point is.

[Slave to the rhythm]

I actually agree that yesterdays game was dreary. Not much goal mouth action at either end. Both sides struggling to break each other down. Too many long balls form City and too many misplaced passes form Boro. The referee was alright tho'.

Some on here seem to be getting carried by the nature of the win. Two superb goals from Maynard and the winner in injury time cloud what was actually dull game. Both side worked hard but there was a serious lack of quality play untill Maynards fisrt goal. There won't much of a highlight package.

I thought it was a mediocre perfomance against mediocre opposition. It was Maynard that was the difference.

Damn right. We shouldn't let the excellent result blind us to the fact that it was a very forgettable game against a side who will not recover from the loss of their key players for some time. We really need a winger (not Ivan) who can give us some more options because both sides got totally bogged down in the middle of the park yesterday.

[Tunley Legend]

As much as it pains me to say it, I agree with you entirely on this one. Other than two moments of magic from Maynard, the game was dull and uninspiring and with City playing 7 defensive outfield players it was little wonder that we created sod all. We got lucky with a couple of long range punts down the middle that should have been dealt with by the Boro defence.

Whether the Boro defence should have dealt with them as a unit or not, to call those passes from Hartley "long range punts" is an insult to the one quality player in our side who can pass a ball. Just because Johnson, Skuse, Elliott or Williams will never see passes like those in their entire career (or if they do see them they don't have the talent to execute them) it doesn't mean that they were just "long punts". All it shows is how starved of decent quality footballers we have been over the years. Didn't you see Hartley look up and spot Maynard's run before he played each PASS? Obviously not. That speed of thought and execution is the difference between your lower league journeyman type player that we have in abundance and someone who has played at the very highest level for both club and country.

[Barrs Court Red]

Some on here seem to be getting carried by the nature of the win.

However, the same could be levelled at you when we lose.

Actually could be? It CAN be.

[Tunley Legend]

I actually agree that yesterdays game was dreary. Not much goal mouth action at either end. Both sides struggling to break each other down. Too many long balls form City and too many misplaced passes form Boro. The referee was alright tho'.

Some on here seem to be getting carried by the nature of the win. Two superb goals from Maynard and the winner in injury time cloud what was actually dull game. Both side worked hard but there was a serious lack of quality play untill Maynards fisrt goal. There won't much of a highlight package.

I thought it was a mediocre perfomance against mediocre opposition. It was Maynard that was the difference.

Don't get me wrong, it was a dull game where two sides cancelled each other out. But to call a Middlesbrough team who had previously not conceded in the league mediocre when there are sides like Barnsley, Plymouth, S****horpe, Swansea and Watford in our league is a little OTT in my view.

And it was games like Saturday that we drew on numerous occasions last season because we never had the cutting edge that Maynard, as you say, is providing at the moment. I would like to think that when we play "mediocre" teams who don't have an Arca in their midfield that can get hold of the ball we will play with a bit more freedom (like we did for that spell against QPR).

[Robbored]

Yeah Boro are really mediocre, absolutely terrible. David Wheater, Adam Johnson, Julio Arca, Emnes... PAH!

Did you think all those boring Top 4 Premier League matches were mediocre matches between mediocre opposition? I'm not saying we're top 4 quality, but you know exactly what my point is.

Who said they were terrible?

Boro certainly put in a mediocre performance but that doesn't make them a mediocre side. Southgate pretty much admitted that post match. They were capable of playing much better than they did.They were also feeling the effect of losing Huth and Tuncay and it look like they might be losing more before the window shuts.

It wasn't that good a game but the result went Citys way. Neither side played slick passing football and there was little goal mouth action.City's two goals came from balls over the top brilliantly taken by Maynard. Apart from those goals the game was pretty dull.

Whats your issue with that?

[StapleHillPhil]

Whether the Boro defence should have dealt with them as a unit or not, to call those passes from Hartley "long range punts" is an insult to the one quality player in our side who can pass a ball. Just because Johnson, Skuse, Elliott or Williams will never see passes like those in their entire career (or if they do see them they don't have the talent to execute them) it doesn't mean that they were just "long punts". All it shows is how starved of decent quality footballers we have been over the years. Didn't you see Hartley look up and spot Maynard's run before he played each PASS? Obviously not. That speed of thought and execution is the difference between your lower league journeyman type player that we have in abundance and someone who has played at the very highest level for both club and country.

Fair enough, perhaps use of the word punt was unfair and for the second goal he clearly spots Maynard's run and plays in a great long range pass.

The point remains though that our seven man defensive wall created nothing for our forwards and had we given away two near identical goals like Boro did this board would be full of posts pulling our defence to pieces.

[Ron]

Who said they were terrible?

Boro certainly put in a mediocre performance but that doesn't make them a mediocre side. Southgate pretty much admitted that post match. They were capable of playing much better than they did.They were also feeling the effect of losing Huth and Tuncay and it look like they might be losing more before the window shuts.

It wasn't that good a game but the result went Citys way. Neither side played slick passing football and there was little goal mouth action.City's two goals came from balls over the top brilliantly taken by Maynard. Apart from those goals the game was pretty dull.

Whats your issue with that?

My issue is that a dull game can be played out with two sides who offer each other respect... Which would be understandable after the tussles we've had with Boro in recent years. We've had a few close-run, "dull" games like that in recent years, not neccessarily through playing badly.