Fleetwood Town's new assistant head coach Steven Whittaker on family bond with Scott Brown and excitement in new role

There were only a couple of days between new boss Scott Brown being interviewed and taking the Fleetwood job, bringing Whittaker in as his assistant.

Former Rangers and Norwich defender Whittaker started his career with Brown at Hibernian and the pair have remained close friends.

Neither of the 37-year-olds has managed before, though Whittaker spent last season as a first-team coach at Dunfermline Athletic

“It’s exciting,” he told The Gazette: “It was all done pretty quickly once Scott went through the interview process, and he was getting closer and thinking he had a chance at getting the job.

"We knew that when Scott got a management job he wanted to work with me. I knew it was something that would always come along.

"But now that it's here it's nice to get a foot in the door, get a hold of the club, and try and push it in the right direction now.

"We've always been close – when we were coming through at Hibs, I was 17 and Scott was 16.

Our families are close as well. Our wives and kids all get on, so that bond was there right from the start, the trust was there.

"You go through your career and you don't think about management – you just think about playing but the trust that we have is going to stand us in good stead to work together. I'll call him out on stuff and he’ll call me out, which you need at times.”