Latte makes that a double for Boro
MICHAEL Carrick praised his Middlesbrough players for digging deep and finding a way to win in what Swansea boss Luke Williams called an “atrocious game of football” at the Riverside.
Williams was furious after his side slumped to a 2-0 defeat that left the Swans just five points above the relegation zone.
City mustered only one shot on target at the Riverside and they’ve now won just one of their past six games.
Williams, who took over in January after leaving Notts County, said his players needed to prove they were part of his long-term plans at the club.
He fumed: “It was just an atrocious game of football, an absolutely diabolical example of the Championship.
“It would have been nicer if we’d won – at least we could have then pretended to be happy about something, but goodness me...
“There was nothing right about that. It was like going to a charity game in the summer – no atmosphere, a bit of talking in the crowd. The first goal was a comedy, the second one wasn’t loads better. It’s hard to find anything good about today, especially when you don’t get any points.” Emmanuel Latte Lath scored an impressive double as Boro kept their playoff hopes alive.
Latte Lath, a summer signing from Atalanta, moved into double figures for league goals this season with strikes either side of half-time as Boro extended their unbeaten run to seven games. Carrick’s side have now kept five clean sheets in their past six games and head for rivals Hull City on Wednesday night six points adrift of the play-off places.
Swansea are 15th in the Championship after a third successive game without a win. Last month’s 2-0 South Wales derby win against Cardiff is the only one in the last six for Williams’ side.
They did have a couple of opportunities to get themselves in front early on, both falling to Jerry Yates. But the striker’s touch let him down.
Inside quarter of an hour, Ronald again teed-up Yates but the 27-year-old was unable to direct his header on target.
Finn Azaz and Isaiah Jones both had openings for Boro but flashed efforts wide from inside the box. It was Latte Lath who was Boro’s liveliest player. The Ivorian broke the deadlock in first half stoppage time when he was first to pounce on a loose ball after Rushworth parried a Jones cross.
Despite the fact six Swansea defenders blocked the route to goal, the striker still managed to squeeze his shot in at the front post. Swansea were almost gifted a leveller at the restart when Dan Barlaser made a mess of an attempted back-pass to Seny Dieng that flashed just past a post.
Swansea probed but struggled to create any clear cut chances and Latte Lath wrapped up the points 11 minutes from time when he cut on to his right foot and clinically found the top corner. and hopefully there’s a few more in him.
“Hopefully his form carries on. When you’re on that run you want to keep surfing it. He’s definitely doing that. We have two or three challenging games coming up; we’ll need that impact player around the box.”
Boro’s rivals Norwich, Hull City and Coventry all won on Saturday, but Carrick said his players just needed to concentrate on themselves as they looked to force their way into the top six.
He said: “We’re coming from behind. We’ve put a bit of a run together, we just have to try and extend that as long as we can. We just have to keep chipping away and see how we end up.”