Charlton’s ageless veteran Darren Pratley does a number on Scott Fraser in 1-0 win at MK

BY BENJY NURICK

Deep into stoppage time at Stadium MK on Tuesday night, Scott Fraser picked up the ball with his back to goal. As his side chased an equaliser in the dying moments, Fraser was, as usual, turned to in order to get one final attack going. Instead, though, he passed the ball backwards with an almost resigned shrug and the move came to nothing.Directly behind him, of course, was Darren Pratley.

Fifty-five days earlier, no Charlton player could even get close to Fraser as he ran the show, scoring the game’s only goal as MK won 1-0 at The Valley. That night Fraser managed six shots while the entirety of Lee Bowyer’s side only summoned eight attempts. MK were the better team, but it still took until the 75th minute before Fraser gave them the lead. On a night of especially fine margins, it’s not an exaggeration to say Fraser was the difference.

Meeting in Milton Keynes nearly two months later, Bowyer was determined to make sure that didn’t happen again.

On Saturday, with Charlton 2-0 down in the second half, Bowyer switched to a 4-3-1-2 formation utilising Jake Forster-Caskey, Andrew Shinnie and Albie Morgan in a three-man midfield. Jayden Stockley and Conor Washington led the line up front while Liam Millar was the extra man, roaming all about in between. The change worked as Charlton recovered to grab a point and when the team news came out an hour before kick-off at MK, a continuation of that system seemed likely with Pratley for Morgan the only alteration from the midfield that ended the game against Swindon.

But this time, instead of keeping Millar as the spare “roaming” player, Bowyer used Pratley as the extra man. Rather than play a traditional role in the Charlton midfield, Pratley almost operated independently, travelling wherever Fraser went.

Below are the two midfielder’s heat-maps from Tuesday, Fraser’s on the left and Pratley’s on the right. It’s striking how similar they are, Pratley refusing to give Fraser space anywhere on the pitch, particularly as they battled it out repeatedly just inside Charlton’s half.

“[Fraser is] their best player. When we played them at our place, he caused us a lot of problems,” Bowyer said. “But Darren Pratley is an experienced pro…and a winner. I said to him before the game: ‘If you can keep quiet that Eze who’s just gone to Crystal Palace and you can keep quiet Bradley Dack, then you can do the same with this lad’.

“Pratley’s job out of possession was to make sure that Fraser didn’t do anything to hurt us and I think he did it exceptionally well. Players like that, they’re priceless. It’s that mentality; never say die, I’m going to win everything. It’s not easy to keep someone quiet for 90-odd minutes. But Pratley’s come in and shown his experience. And when you’ve got people in the team like that it spreads.”

At The Valley, Fraser touched the ball 92 times, 16 more than any other player on the pitch. On Tuesday he managed just 60 touches, sixth-most on his own team, despite MK’s 70 per cent share of the ball. His only shot came from a free-kick.
Meanwhile, Pratley made five tackles, more than any other player and frequently against Fraser.

Pratley set the tone for the entire team and he did so as early as the fourth minute when Fraser took a slightly heavy touch and found Charlton’s captain closing in impossibly fast before nudging the ball free to Washington. Stockley’s eventual shot was saved but Pratley was just getting started and it had an infectious effect on the rest of his team.

Led by Pratley, it was Charlton’s high press that tormented MK in the opening half an hour as the hosts struggled against wave after wave of pressure. Pratley may not have been directly involved in his side’s 18th-minute goal, but as with all of Charlton’s best moments, it was manufactured by winning the ball high up the pitch.

From an MK goal-kick, Charlton trapped them in their defensive half and Adam Matthews rose highest to win the ball out of the air. The right-back’s header fell to Washington, who exchanged passes with Stockley before crossing to the back-post where Liam Millar cut inside and fired past Andrew Fisher to give Charlton the lead.

Moments later Pratley himself could have scored when he charged into the box after helping his side regain possession. Less comfortable in the opposition box than his own, Pratley didn’t pull the trigger and his eventual pass was intercepted. But really, it says quite a lot about Pratley’s utter blanketing of Fraser that the best chance between the two of them fell to the Charlton man.

There were a number of impressive individual Charlton performances but, as Bowyer said, it all seemed to spread from Pratley. The 35-years-old has recorded the second-most appearances amongst Charlton’s outfield players this season as he continues to defy all previous notions of ‘old age’ in football. Perhaps Pratley’s timelessness should no longer be a surprise. After all, he was placed in the ‘fittest group’ for running drills during Charlton’s pre-season training camp in the West Midlands.

🏃 The squad were put through their paces with a tough day of training in the West Midlands yesterday…

Watch the full 'Inside Training' video from behind the scenes of pre-season on Valley Pass

📺 https://t.co/8zYWXnBHHz #cafc pic.twitter.com/yDFks87Uso

— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) August 21, 2020

This time, his feat was intensely smothering Fraser, and in seeing their opponents’ biggest threat neutralized, Charlton grew in confidence and energy.

Miraculously, Pratley never seemed to tire, and midway through the second half he charged down a number of white shirts, eventually forcing them all the way back to their keeper. It was a moment that spoke volumes of the performance as each MK player decided to get rid of the ball instead of having to come up against Pratley. Arriving on someone else’s patch, Charlton made the hosts feel thoroughly uncomfortable, an accomplishment inspired by Pratley’s treatment of Fraser.

MK’s 1-0 win at The Valley in December might be remembered for their number 10, but it could just as easily have been Darren Pratley’s night. Instead, in front of a 2,000-person socially-distanced crowd, Pratley smashed Charlton’s best chance against the underside of the bar with seconds to go and Fraser held on to the glory.

On Tuesday, Pratley made sure it was his night. And Charlton’s of course.

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS/KEITH GILLARD/PAUL EDWARDS + PA