Joey Barton sings the praises of Fleetwood Town's young guns

Joey Barton feels the performances of the youngsters in his Fleetwood Town squad is currently glossing over his need for a few more players.
Fleetwood Town's Jay Matete   Picture: Stephen Buckley/PRiME Media Images LimitedFleetwood Town's Jay Matete   Picture: Stephen Buckley/PRiME Media Images Limited
Fleetwood Town's Jay Matete Picture: Stephen Buckley/PRiME Media Images Limited

The club is actively working on bringing in their targets, but the emerging talent at Highbury is currently making the headlines.

Town have been linked with a move for Charlie Mulgrew as they look to strengthen their backline but The Gazette understands that, although there is interest in the Scot, a deal is not currently close.

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With reinforcements needed, more so in the defensive areas, Barton is optimistic of what the season could hold should he be able to strengthen.

He said: “It’s great to see young James Hill, who’s 18, in there. He was absolutely outstanding again in there.

“Sam Stubbs, who is 21, was in there next to him; Jay Matete, 19, came on and did superb.

Harvey Saunders came on, who we took from Darlington working for Costa Coffee a couple of years ago, and he’s put the hard work in and has turned himself into a footballer.

“It’s great for our football club in many different ways.

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“You’ve got those senior players in there who you recruit to be superb, but underneath that you’re developing your own players from the academy and the scouts are bringing in players from the non-league scene.

“They’re real good signs for the football club and it’s down to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, so they should be really happy over the last few weeks because their hard work is paying us dividends in the first team.”

Hill has caught the eye the most since the start of the new campaign, the youngster having developed through the Fleetwood academy.

Despite coming into the first team a few years ago, Barton believes he’s seen a rapid development in the centre- back, the son of former Preston North End and Bristol City left-back Matt Hill, over the last few months.

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He said: “Hilly was someone we thought might have to go out on loan, he’s only 18.

“He made his debut when he was only just 17 at Blackpool in my first season, two seasons ago.

“Then he never really came back into the first team, he played a few EFL Trophy games.

“He was going through a growth phase, his legs and his body hadn’t quite caught up with one another.

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“He came back after the Covid break for the play-offs and he looked a little bit more mature in his physique.

“He knew Harry Souttar and Lewis Gibson would be going back to their parent clubs and I challenged him.

“I said ‘if you want to be a player you’ve got to come back in incredible shape, you can’t have three or four weeks off, you’ve got an opportunity in the pre-season games to give a great account of yourself.’

“I thought again, he was outstanding, he just grew into the game.

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“He’s given me a lovely problem which is how can we keep developing him?

“He looks like he’s going to be a real top-class prospect but we’ve got to keep his feet on the ground, he’s got to keep learning every day.

“I’m sure, working intently with Clint Hill, Stephen Crainey and myself, his feet won’t come off the ground.

“His dad too, his dad was a good player and his dad keeps his feet firmly on the ground too.”