Cameron has found form to keep his critics quiet

CAMERON Borthwick-jackson’s detractors were noticeable by their absence at the weekend after another calm and assured display by the left-sided full-back or wing-back.

Every season, at almost every club, at least one player seems to get singled out for criticism through the social media channels and, this season, it has been Borthwick-jackson at Burton.

Criticism is fair enough but in some cases it becomes ever more one-eyed and when the targeted player has a good game, his detractors are not prepared to admit it. They just go quiet.

Of course, it is not only since the advent of social media that this sort of thing has happened. It just gets a wider audience now.

As a kid, I can recall Terry Hennessy and John Mcgovern as the butt of Derby County fans’ ire, even as Mcgovern was pulling up trees in the Rams’ midfield.

Later, when the Brewers became the first club whose matches I attended, winger Paul Froggatt and midfielder Graham Fearn would cop it – they were always a bit too cultured for some tastes in the Northern Premier League.

You had to be thick-skinned as a player because every word came across loud and clear with 600 people inside Eton Park and there is still plenty that is audible with 3,000 inside the Pirelli Stadium.

At both grounds, Darren Stride was not having any of it and was inclined to give it back from time to time. There were not many who would have stood face to face with him and repeated what they had said from the anonymity of the terrace.

Social media had not taken hold quite to the extent that it has now by the time Stride retired.

More recently, Tom Flanagan was the bogey-man, followed by Colin Daniel. It was not a coincidence, perhaps, that both played mostly at left-back.

They were following the very popular Damien Mccrory and neither really grabbed the position by the scruff of the neck enough to replace the Irish defender in fans’ minds.

When he first arrived at the club, goalkeeper Ben Garratt caught his fair share of the flak and he would probably admit that he had a few shaky moments. Some supporters will not admit that Jon Mclaughlin has ever been adequately replaced in goal.

But, largely, Garratt has won people over, which shows an unflappable nature and a strong character.

Now, hopefully, Borthwick-jackson is on the way to doing the same.

He carries with him the burden of having started his career with a short but successful run in the Premier League with Manchester United. Some will always see him as a “big shot” who could not sustain his early success.

It is never that simple and, at 24, Borthwick-jackson still has time on his side to do exceptionally well in the game.

Some see his relaxed body language as lazy. I think that’s a misconception. He has time on the ball and has turned in a string of good performances in the last four or five matches, which have included as a wing-back and as one of a back three.

On Saturday, his pass out of defence to send Harry Chapman away to score was superb; initially well spotted, then beautifully measured and weighted down the line.

There will be a goal before long, too. He hits the ball hard and has had one or two efforts blocked.

Saturday’s piledriver was straight at Crewe keeper Dave Richards but it was travelling and could have been spilled. Richards held it well.

The only drawback on Saturday was that he felt a groin injury and had to come off.

Hopefully, it will prove to be a minor niggle and the withdrawal was a precaution.

Nor is Borthwick-jackson afraid to mix it. He has had to have his head repaired at least twice this season.

Brewers assistant boss Dino Maamria managed him at Oldham Athletic, where he also seemed to divide opinion, and was keen to bring him to Burton.

Maamria and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink think they have a class act on their hands.

By the end of this season, most supporters might agree.