Fleetwood Town boss: Team selection may have been wrong at Port Vale

Experienced frontmen Joe Garner and Ellis Harrison both started Saturday's League One curtain-raiser at Port Vale on the bench as boss Brown opted for new signing Promise Omochere as his central striker.

It was an EFL debut for the former Bohemians 21-year-old Omochere, whose arrival at Fleetwood had only been confirmed nine days earlier.

Harrison entered the fray just past the hour at Vale Park, while Garner replaced Omochere for the closing stages of Town's 2-1 defeat.

And Brown said of his first competitive game in charge: “I'm going to learn a lot about the players, about what they can do and who we can trust.

“We've seen the subs come on as and Joe Garner is an experienced pro who puts his body on and starts to hold the ball up.

“He brings people into play and Ellis was doing the same.

“For me, it's good to see their reaction to being on the bench, coming on and being positive.

“But I could have picked any of the starting XI to come off and that's not what me and the backroom staff have seen so far in pre-season because we've done very well.

“But we're going to make mistakes, the lads are going to make mistakes and I'll take this one on the chin. Maybe I got the team selection wrong, so I'll definitely take that one for the lads because they have worked so hard in pre-season for me and the staff.”