Rotherham defender: I’d 100 per cent be interested in Charlton stay

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Ben Purrington is interested in a Charlton Athletic return.

The on-loan Rotherham left-back signed off in style at Wembley as he scored in Sunday’s 2-1 League One play-off final against Sunderland.

But Purrington is still under contract at Rotherham, who have swapped divisions with the South Londoners.

Addicks manager Lee Bowyer has already told the South London Press that adding a left-back this summer is a priority with Lewis Page’s SE7 career being heavily injury hit.

Purrington said: “I’m still under contract with Rotherham so I’ll have to see what happens in the summer. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at Charlton. I’ve played 51 games this year which I’ve enjoyed every minute of.

“I’ve just got to see what happens to be honest, how the next few weeks pan out. Open to coming back? One-hundred percent, yes. The lads, the group that we have, the manager, the fans. It’s a great club. I’ve scored at Wembley for Charlton now so the club means a bit to me now. We’ll have to see what happens in the summer.

“There’s no better time to score it [his first goal for Charlton] than that.

“It’s my first league goal, if you class that as a league goal.

“I’ve scored in the FA Cup a few times but I’ve never scored in the league. What a time to do it.

“The lads were unbelievable from start to finish. First thirty minutes we weren’t at it. But we grew into the game and what a result it was.

“I don’t think there’s any better feeling than that. Scoring in the last minute how we did. You’ve gone throughout the whole game trying to get the result and then when it happens you’re taken aback. As soon as we scored it was like if we concede now we’re going to be devastated.

“The fans were unreal throughout. You heard them throughout the whole game. There was 38,000 and they were unreal. Dills has been brilliant all year. This is one of those. Mistakes like that happen, you see it at every level. It’s just a shame it happened on a day like this at Wembley but credit to Dill, he’s been top-drawer all year. The amount of clean sheets he’s kept, the amount of saves he’s made. He’s been unbelievable. It’s one of those where it just happens.

“I’ve made mistakes in my time. People score own goals. It’s just one of those things that’s happened. It’s early on, there’s a lot of time for you to come back into the game. When we got the equaliser, we settled into the game. It was a lot different after we got the equaliser.”