Bob Latchford

Robert Dennis "Bob" Latchford (born 18 January 1951) is an English former association footballer who played as a centre forward. He made more than 500 appearances in the Football League, playing for Birmingham City, Everton, Swansea City and Coventry City in the First Division, and won 12 full caps for England.

Latchford was the complete centre-forward, able to score or create chances for teammates using either his feet or head. Despite his size – 6 feet (1.83m) tall – he was very fast over short distances, a quality he used to his advantage when scoring many of his goals.

Career

Latchford was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham. He was transferred from Birmingham City to Everton for £350,000, a British transfer record at the time (Howard Kendall and Archie Styles were transferred to Birmingham City as part of the same deal, with Birmingham being paid just £80,000). At Everton, Latchford was the top scorer for six successive seasons. He scored 30 goals in the 1977–78 season, winning a £10,000 prize offered by a national newspaper for the first footballer to reach that number in a single season. During the mid-seventies, Latchford was widely considered as one of the top English forwards of his generation. He earned his first full cap for England in a World Cup qualifier against Italy in 1977. In April 2006 a book was published telling the story of his 1977/78 season. Co-written with journalist Martin O'Boyle, the book supports Everton's former players charity.

Latchford

Coordinates: 53°22′47″N 2°33′52″W / 53.3796°N 2.5645°W / 53.3796; -2.5645

Latchford is a suburb and electoral ward of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is around one mile south-east of Warrington town centre and has a total resident population of 7,856.

Latchford is a predominantly residential area, Latchford lies between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, and broadly consists of 19th century terraced housing and some open space. The canal is crossed here by a swing bridge, a high level road bridge and the now disused Latchford railway viaduct.

Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Læccford = "Boggy-stream ford".

History

Latchford was originally a township in the ancient parish of Grappenhall, in Cheshire. It was also part of Bucklow Hundred, and was close to the border with Lancashire.

Between 1894 and 1974, part of Latchford was placed within the County Borough of Warrington, and the registration county of Lancashire, whilst the rest of Latchford became a civil parish named "Latchford Without" and was transferred to Lancashire.