Fleetwood Town youngsters are backed to progress up the pyramid

The Town defender is also happy to play his part in helping them to fulfil their potential.

Interim head coach Stephen Crainey this week highlighted the vital role of senior players like Andrew in guiding the academy graduates who have stepped up to first-team duties at Highbury during the course of this season.

Full-back Andrew told The Gazette: “Throughout the season you’ve seen the older lads having one-on-one conversations with the younger ones.

“It’s a fine line between getting after them a bit and keeping them on their toes, and potentially going overboard and losing them completely. But they are all great lads and they all listen.

“I think the young players have probably played enough games now.

“It’s easy for young players to go into their shell when they first come into the team, not express themselves and not do what they do in training, but the work rate has been fantastic.

“Everyone in football has come through that stage and it’s about getting your head down and working hard, which these lads have done really well.”

Andrew insists hard work is also the key to them reaching the top.

He added: “At such a young age I was nowhere near the ability I’ve seen from some of these lads in training and in games.

“It’s down to them to do things right on and off the pitch to get to the top level because a lot of sacrifices have to be made.”

Andrew and his team-mates have been preparing for today’s game at Morecambe, as they look to make it three wins in a row and put further distance between themselves and the bottom four in League One.

However, the build-up to this afternoon’s match at the Mazuma Stadium has come amid another national upsurge in Covid-19 cases.

That has led to numerous postponements this weekend of matches in League One and at other levels of the football pyramid.

An ever-present in Town’s league games this season, Andrew added: “You can’t not pay attention to it. The big clubs are having games cancelled too.

“As a player you just want to play and hopefully it doesn’t have a huge effect or stop the season.

“Everyone’s health is the main thing and, if it’s safer to stop for a while, it has to be done.”

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