Fleetwood Town's youngsters to be Spurred on

Last summer Fleetwood started the new campaign with the division’s second youngest average age of 23.1.

However, new manager Joey Barton has brought in a mix of younger players and experienced professionals to bolster his squad.

The majority of Town’s young crop had an underwhelming season under Uwe Rosler and John Sheridan, finishing 14th in the table.

Accusations of inexperience, a lack of consistency and a lack of leaders could all have been thrown at that particular campaign.

Town acted in the January transfer window to address the youthful age of their squad bringing in Paddy Madden and Toumani Diagouraga.

The duo are raring to go this pre-season with Barton also swooping for experience in the guise of Wigan centre-half Craig Morgan.

At the other end of the age range, Barton has also snapped up promising 19-year-old left-back Eddie Clarke from Tranmere and brought back defender Lewie Coyle on a six-month loan deal from Leeds United.

Those deals were followed by a season-long move for Barton’s former Glasgow Rangers team-mate, Jason Holt, followed by Spurr’s arrival at Highbury on a similar basis.

The 30-year-old has enjoyed League One success before, winning promotion with Doncaster Rovers in 2012/13 and playing in the Championship with Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End.

Having made the move from Deepdale, Spurr – whose contract at North End expires next summer – is hoping to use his experience to help Town’s youngsters and help Fleetwood climb up the table this term.

He said: “Hopefully I can.

“You try and help the younger lads as much as you can.

“First and foremost you just want to get going, get training and get back into the swing of training and playing games.”

Spurr joined his new team mates for pre-season training for the first time last week and he has been enjoying his new surroundings at Poolfoot Farm.

He said: “The building and everything is first class, hopefully it can stand us in good stead using this sort of place to train all week and hopefully win games at the weekend.”