I loved Platty - was the No 1 when I first started going, but for an all round shot stopper who could command his area too it has to be the big Aussie for me as the best I’ve seen in a Boro shirtFor sheer consitency has to be Jim Platt?
Don't ever recall him making the howlers you see the so called elite keepers make nowadays.
His only downfall was I never thought he was that good at saving penalties.
Maybe not, it could have been Tim Williamson - over 600 league and cup games - 563 league - but what is even more stunning is that he played either side of WW1 - how many appearances might/would he have played but for losing 4 full seasons of his career to war?!I‘d go for Jim Platt too, in terms of my favourite Boro keeper.
Arguably the best Keeper we’ve had is Victor Valdes, 8 Spanish cup wins, 3 Champions League wins and 6 league titles aren’t to be sneezed at.
I reckon goalkeeper is definitely a position that can only be judged within an era. Tim Williamson would have played a very different game to Rolando Ugolini - though both were well under 6ft - hence Tiny Tim Williamson. It was a very physical game in Ugolini's day. There was no charging the keeper in Jim Platt's day. Stephen Pears played when keepers were all starting to wear gloves and the back pass law changed towards the end of his time. By the time of Mark Schwarzer a goalkeeper was already starting to be judged more for his distribution, people criticised Schwarzer as opposed to Crossley and yet surely his prime job was to keep the ball out of the net.
Dimi had a phenomenal record in the promotion campaign. I wonder if in the same way people would talk about Jack Charlton's back four but leave out Jim Platt whether people forget how good the last line of our defence was for Dimi's tenure?
To be fair, Dimi was an average keeper behind a very good defenceI reckon goalkeeper is definitely a position that can only be judged within an era. Tim Williamson would have played a very different game to Rolando Ugolini - though both were well under 6ft - hence Tiny Tim Williamson. It was a very physical game in Ugolini's day. There was no charging the keeper in Jim Platt's day. Stephen Pears played when keepers were all starting to wear gloves and the back pass law changed towards the end of his time. By the time of Mark Schwarzer a goalkeeper was already starting to be judged more for his distribution, people criticised Schwarzer as opposed to Crossley and yet surely his prime job was to keep the ball out of the net.
Dimi had a phenomenal record in the promotion campaign. I wonder if in the same way people would talk about Jack Charlton's back four but leave out Jim Platt whether people forget how good the last line of our defence was for Dimi's tenure?
That's probably a fair point. He was too small for the top flight, from corners in particular he struggled. Absolute boss at 1 vs 1s and shot stopping though. But I do remember a lot of goals against him, 136 goals in his 2 seasons in the top flight. He made some decent saves but his shot stopping dropped dramatically.Pears for example whilst a good keeper played the vast majority of his games in the 2nd level and in my opinion looked a bit out of his depth in the top level.