Darren Pratley signs on a four year deal

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Pratley by name..

[Prufrock]

He played about 15 mins for Fulham in the Premiership. So ner.

[thebish]

He played about 15 mins for Fulham in the Premiership. So ner.

ahh - yes - indeed! apologies to the Pratmeister!

[aussie_wanderer]

couldnt be anyworse then what elmander did when playing in midfield

[TANGODANCER]

couldnt be anyworse then what elmander did when playing in midfield

You mean like running his bollocks off and doing really well in a position completely alien to him just because the manager asked him to play there? That sort of worse?

[Lofthouse Lower]

He didn't do 'really well' at all though

[Lord Kangana]

He played about 15 mins for Fulham in the Premiership. So ner.

ahh - yes - indeed! apologies to the Pratmeister!

Now you're just being silly..

Da pratster would be far more appropriate.

[thebish]

The BeN has Dratley as a potential "new Nolan"

Take Prat and party as Coyle unearths new Nolan

DARREN Pratley’s name might not have shifted too many shirts in the club shop over the summer but things may just be about to change.

A fair percentage of the Wanderers support have been left somewhat underwhelmed that the 26-year-old midfielder remains the only confirmed bit ofbusiness done by Owen Coyle since the transfer window opened.

But they say the quiet ones are always the ones to watch, and there were signs in yesterday’s this display that the manager might well have plucked another diamond from the rough.

Dratley may not be the marquee signing fans have craved, but his eye for goal and movement off the ball hint at the type of player the club have lacked since Kevin Nolan was in his pomp and registering double figures with regularity.

Arriving with perfect timing and a well-executed finish, the former Swansea man scored the second goal of a tough afternoon for Wanderers, who just 24 hours earlier had been waiting at the baggage carousel at Manchester Airport after their US tour.

Playing so soon after arriving back on English soil, the jet-lag factor was always likely to come into play, and it was only in the latter stages of the second half that Wanderers were able to make their class tell.

But Dratley was a consistent high point, and his willingness to run past strikers Robbie Blake and Ivan Klasnic – both of whom also put in impressive performances – was encouraging to watch.

Any lasting sleepiness from the flight from Florida was quickly bludgeoned out of the Whites by Bradford, whose muscular approach was difficult to contend with at times.

Steve Williams had a header hacked off the line by returning Bantams hero Blake and there were a handful of other nervous moments at the back before Martin Petrov finally settled the nerves with a 13th-minute penalty.

Gretar Steinsson’s clever ball over the top found a willing runner in Dratley, and while he got to the ball well before Bantams keeper Mark Howard, his progress was checked with a crude challenge, and punished correctly with a penalty.

Petrov provided a calm finish and Wanderers started to find some pattern to their play.

Dratley’s drives through midfield were the main threat and it was from just such a burst that he nearly added a second just before the break.

Ghosting round Howard, the midfielder turned a shot towards goal from the angle that was blocked on the line by Michael Flynn.

If Bradford were to have got themselves back into the game, it would almost certainly have come from a set piece, where twin terrors Branston and Williams had the run of the Whites’ back line.

Branston had one goal chalked out for an over exuberant challenge on youngster Mark Connolly – who will have learned plenty from his afternoon – but just as Bradford looked like building a head of steam, a moment of Premier class settled the contest.

Blake picked the ball up on the right and bided his time before rolling a perfect pass into Dratley, who stroked the ball effortlessly into the bottom corner.

It was the kind of timing Dratley has exhibited on countless occasions in the white of Swansea, and no doubt the chief reason Coyle was so keen to bring him to the Reebok.

But if Wanderers' second had oozed top-flight class, Bradford’s reply moments later was also from the very top drawer.

Seizing on a Mark Davies pass that deflected off the referee, substitute Nialle Rodney went on a mazy run past Connolly and Steinsson before smashing his shot past Adam Bogdan.

But with Ricardo Gardner now marshalling the midfield, the Whites gradually suffocated the game until Kevin Davies – on as a 72nd-minute sub – produced a neat lob over Howard for his side’s third. A trimmed down Klasnic then started and finished the fourth to cap off the afternoon and give a slightly flattering look to the scoreline.

Wanderers: Bogdan 6; Steinsson 6, Wheater 6, Connolly 7, Alonso 6, Mark Davies 7 (Gardner 6, 57), Muamba 6 (Obadeyi 6, 57). Dratley 8, Petrov 6, Klasnic 7, Blake 7 (Kevin Davies 72). Not used: Lainton, Cahill, Robinson, Knight.

[Wandering Willy]

The BeN has Dratley as a potential "new Nolan"

Take Prat and party as Coyle unearths new Nolan

registering double figures with regularity.

Twice in nine years, never in the league - or is this half time pie consumption?





Now, if Bish would kindly empty his keep net and set me free.

[bobo the clown]

"a trimmed down Klasnic" !!