WHEN Finn Azaz's lofted through-ball landed at the feet of Emmanuel Latte Lath, what was going to happen next felt obvious.

It was on Latte Lath's weaker foot, at an angle and the ball was bouncing but the outcome was never in doubt.

The power of confidence.

Latte Lath had already scored two goals in Boro's blistering eight-minute spell that preceded half-time and just four minutes after the break he ensured the seat next to him on the flight home would be taken by the ball that he lashed beyond helpless Oxford goalkeeper Jamie Cumming.

Remarkably, despite going nine league games and two months without finding the net early in the season, Latte Lath is now the third top scorer in the Championship.

And on this form - he now has six goals in his last six games - he'll soon catch Josh Maja and Borja Sainz, though don't be surprised if you see him rested before the week is out, with Tommy Conway again making his case from the bench with a goal at the Kassam Stadium and Michael Carrick planning to make the most of his squad to help negotiate the frantic coming spell.

With his stunning goal against Luton and his confident hat-trick at Oxford, Latte Lath now looks like the player from the end of last season again. And, once again, he's being fuelled by belief.

“Confidence is so hard to put a price on," said Carrick, after seeing his side climb into the Championship's top six. 

"When you’ve got it and you’re in that moment, in the zone, you see the solution all the time. You don’t see the problem or the hazards, you just see the solution. As well as Manu right now, it seems to be like that for a number of players."

Indeed. Like Finn Azaz, who, after his brace and two assists on Saturday, now has 10 goal involvements in his last six games.

He tops the league assists chart with seven and has created 44 chances, a tally only bettered by one player in the division.

He's undoubtedly playing his best football since his arrival in January. He scored Boro's second at Oxford, created the third and fourth and then scored the sixth. How relieved the home side will have been to see his number then go up as Carrick turned to his bench but by that stage the damage was done.

“I think [this is his best football since signing], and I think that’s been coming," said the head coach of Azaz.

"I thought he finished last season really strongly and I think he’s played pretty strongly all this season as well.

"It’s just now he’s adding that end product and it’s falling for him at the moment. He’s proven for a number of years not that he has that in the locker with the goals and assists he’s provided. Now he’s doing that here and he’s important in the way he plays and connects things for us."

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It's credit to Latte Lath and Azaz that we've managed to get this far without talking about Ben Doak.

Doak returned to Boro after a fortnight of dominating the headlines in Scotland and with exposure comes expectation.

Carrick admitted the winger is now a "marked man" but focus too much on Doak and opposing sides run the risk of leaving Latte Lath and Azaz free to cause havoc. Or Conway. Or Delano Burgzorg. Or Riley McGree, Marcus Forss, Isaiah Jones or Micah Hamilton. You get the point.

Carrick felt his side didn't play to the Doak's strengths as much as he'd have liked in the early stages at Oxford and yet the teenager still made his mark. It took 37 minutes for the home side to realise the only way to stop him is to wipe him out. Elliott Moore was fortunate not to be sent off; Doak was fortunate not to be injured. Latte Lath struck from the spot, cancelling out Greg Leigh's Oxford opener.

"I thought it was a challenge for Ben," said Carrick.

"He's a marked man now so that's the next step. We probably didn't serve him enough or they dealt with it and defended that side quite well early in the game. He was patient but when he had half a chance to make a difference he's made a difference."

And what a difference a few weeks has made for Boro.

"You're getting carried away again," joked Carrick when it was put to him that his team now truly have lift-off.

It's hard not to get carried away after 15 goals in the last three games. And to think Boro had scored 14 in 13 games prior to that.

And Saturday's success was all the more impressive considering who they were missing: Seny Dieng, Rav van den Berg, Hayden Hackney and Aidan Morris.

Sol Brynn took his chance, making a superb save to deny Mark Harris at 1-1, a moment both Carrick and Oxford boss Des Buckingham described as game-changing. And he then started the move that led to Boro's second goal. Dan Barlaser made Boro tick in midfield. For Carrick, positives everywhere he looked.

"We know what the boys are capable of and it's exciting, there's no getting away from that," he said.

"I don't feel any different to what I have for most of the season because this is what we've been threatening to do. The boys are capitalising on it. We have to keep building on it.

"The boys are confident but we have two tough games on Wednesday and Saturday and that's why the squad will be vital, getting the right teams for both games. On what we've seen today, even with the injuries we've got, it's a really good sign for the rest of the season."