Fleetwood chief executive Steve Curwood lifts the lid on deadline day at Town

Devante Cole left Fleetwood Town on deadline day for Wigan Athletic

Town started the final day of the transfer window braced for interest in top scorer Devante Cole but the deals only rolled in during a frantic two-and-a-quarter-hour spell.

The second priority, other than assessing interest for Cole and getting the best deal for the club, was to get a number of their development squad players out.

The deals started tumbling when the clock hit 8.45pm with Ashley Nadesan clinching a loan move to Carlisle United.

Fifteen minutes later Town swooped for Middlesbrough forward Joao Morelli, who will initially link up with Paul Murray’s development squad.

The Cole deal was finally confirmed at 9.30pm when Wigan Athletic announced they had snapped him on a two-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

With that deal boxed off an hour-and-a-half before the 11pm close Town continued to work on securing deals for their development squad players.

A late bid for Harvey Rodgers from Accrington Stanley freed up room to recruit another young central defender as Town unveiled a late loan move for Manchester City youngster Charlie Oliver.

Curwood said: “It was an extremely frantic end to the day. We were here until after 11pm.

“It started calmly as things do.

“We knew there was interest in Devante Cole, a couple of clubs were in for him. That progressed throughout the day.

“Eventually we got the agreement done and that was sealed early evening.

“Our other objectives were getting boys out on loan.

“Those sort of deals were moving along with technical director Gretar Steinsson, chief scout Steve Davis and myself taking phonecalls.

“All those players managed to get clubs and will get valuable experience.

“We concluded the evening with late interest shown in Harvey Rodgers and also we managed to bring in Joao and also Charlie Oliver.

“Overall a very busy day hotted up right at the end as these things do.

“Our secretary Luis de Oleza has been busy with thousands of pieces of paperwork.

“Fingers crossed everything has gone in and dotted ts crossed in time for them to be playing for their new clubs or us.”