Pratley: Charlton boys should be playing at a higher level
Darren Pratley believes his Charlton team-mates deserve to be playing at a higher level ahead of the crunch League One play-off final against Sunderland.
Charlton reached the final after beating Doncaster Rovers in a dramatic penalty shoot-out at The Valley, the Black Cats beating Portsmouth 1-0 over two legs to set up the Wembley showdown.
Jack Ross will pit his wits against Lee Bowyer on Sunday afternoon (KO 3pm), with Sunderland unbeaten against Charlton this season following the opening day 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light and the 1-1 draw in London in January.
Ahead of the final, Pratley said: “When you’re young you’re fearless, you don’t care.
“You see players like Joe Aribo, Josh Cullen, even Dillon Phillips, they’re fearless and they just want to play football.
“The players deserve to be playing at a higher level than League One so hopefully we can do it at Wembley.
“I’m also one of the most experienced boys, I’m with the young boys a lot and we have a laugh with them and when you got players like Joe and Dill coming through, they are very good players and I’m sure they’ll go onto have very good careers.”
And Pratley has been impressed with the job done by Bowyer, adding: “He’s good, he lets the young boys go out and express themselves. He’s got great staff with him and a good group of boys.
Nobody comes in and causes a fuss.
“Even when we lose a game we give our all, so hopefully we get promoted and we can sort his contract out for next year.”