Clint Hill: Why Fleetwood Town must be patient in "strange" transfer market

So says assistant manager Clint Hill, who explained the problems of recruitment in this pre-season like no other.

After watching a team which blended youth and experience overcome Carlisle United 3-1 in their EFL Trophy opener on Tuesday, Hill said: "We are in the market and have made contact over a couple of targets.

"We just need to look now at how we can get them over the line and get them in the team to give the lads the help they need.

"It's been a strange kind of transfer window. The Championship clubs have only just gone back, so we have to be patient, but the young lads were a credit to themselves.

"It takes a few weeks before the Premier League and Championship teams start to look at what players they can allow to leave on loan, and then it filters down to League One and Two so we will have to be patient.

"There are so many things that can go wrong with transfers now. Somebody can come in and gazump you. Somebody might do really well in a friendly and the manager says, 'Hold on, I might keep him!' That's football, so we're in the lap of the gods, but we're in the running and hopefully we'll have some news in the next 10 days."

Academy graduates Harrison Holgate, aged 20, and James Hill, 18, impressed as the central defensive pairing on Tuesday as Town look to replace last season's loanees Lewis Gibson and Harry Souttar.

But Hill would have no qualms about fielding inexperienced players in the League One opener at home to Burton Albion on Saturday week.

He explained: "I don't think so because the way they handled themselves (at Carlisle) was brilliant. Now it's time for them to kick on.

"They've made a good start but now they have 10-15 years to go and do it. It's up to them now but they've made a good positive start."

Two new signings made debuts at Carlisle, where midfielder Callum Camps scored Fleetwood's first goal of the season and Joel Coleman got the nod ahead of Alex Cairns in goal.

Hill anticipates a keen battle between those two for the goalkeeping jersey and added: "Ideally we want that sort of competition in every position but we're not Chelsea, so we probably can't do that. "