DARREN Pratley’s transformation from boo-boy to club captain has been a heart-warming one, but should it make people think twice about giving players a fair go on the terraces?

While I freely admit his physical, sometimes ungainly style looked a little out of place in Owen Coyle’s Premier League squad, I believe Pratley was vastly under-utilised by both Coyle and Dougie Freedman when the club dropped into the Championship.

Pratley was too often the fall-guy, played out of position in a sitting role, on the left or as a number 10. He was always the square block trying to fill a round hole and was rarely given the extended run in the team he craved.

And I think because there seemed no natural position for him at Wanderers, he became an easy target for criticism.

Now as someone paid to assess players’ performances – and give those oh-so-controversial match marks – it’s difficult to take the moral high ground.

My rule of thumb is if I am to criticise a manager or player, nothing I write in the paper can be any different than I’d be willing to say to them face-to-face the next morning.

What galls me a little with Pratley, and others past and present, is the minority who refuse to give players a chance. Booing them as the teams are read out, for example, is a particular pet hate of mine.

Pratley was by no means the first to get such treatment. Every squad has someone who gets the lion’s share of stick.

Julian Darby was the typical example growing up – the local lad with Wanderers through thick and thin. Some of the stuff aimed at him whenever I went to Burnden Park would make your hair curl.

When I first started covering the Whites full-time, Kevin Nolan was coming to the end of his time at the club. He was captain and coming under fire for his performances, which had suffered under Gary Megson. Many are now clamouring for him to come back to Bolton, some six years later.

My best example, though, is Fabrice Muamba – who in his first season at Wanderers couldn’t do a thing right in the eyes of his own club’s fans, nor his manager, as it turned out.

For a spell under Coyle, though, I don’t think there was a midfield partnership that could touch him and Stu Holden in the Premier League. Long before that fateful night at White Hart Lane, Fabrice had already proved the old saying that form is temporary.

But however strong a character appears, confidence always plays some part, and Pratley’s was shot by the start of last season. You’d have got good odds on his staying at the Macron Stadium beyond his current contract.

We all know the arrival of Neil Lennon changed all that. Suddenly, given the regular start, Pratley became the standard bearer exhibiting the energy levels the new manager was looking for; the goals, which had always been a hallmark of his time at Swansea, quickly followed, as did adulation from the fans.

Now Lennon has given him the ultimate backing by making the 30-year-old captain. The Darren Pratley fan club is now alive and well.

I wonder, then, if other players could take a similar route?

Liam Trotter, for example, shares many of the same physical attributes as Pratley but seems to be stuck in the same downward spiral that his team-mate was two years ago.

Only Lennon and his staff are able to judge whether he deserves a place in the team – that is not for me to argue – but should he get a shirt against Derby County on the opening day of the season, could he count on the full support of the Wanderers fans from the start?

You’d certainly hope so.

Dean Moxey is another player who has pedigree at this level, yet after a nervous debut last season he has never quite won over the public in Bolton.

Given Lennon’s problems at full-back, wouldn’t it be a fine thing if Moxey were to find his groove?

With everything else going on off the field at the club, I sense the fans are going to have an even bigger role than ever this season. Getting every ounce of form out of every player on the pitch is going to be vital – and Lennon may need some help. The question is, are you up for the challenge?