Former Celtic youth team skipper Matty Hughes can’t wait to get started at Fleetwood Town.
Despite interest from a number of Football League clubs the centre-half has opted to join the Blue Square Premniership side managed by Micky Mellon.
Fleetwood lost out to Wimbledon in the play-offs for a place in the Football League at the end of last season with Hughes hoping to play his part in a promotion winning season.
Famous names such as Wrexham, Darlington, Luton Town, Grimsby and Mansfield will be competing for a Football League place but Hughes is convinced that his new side are on the up and up.
“I sat down with the gaffer, had a good chat with him and this is a club that wants to go places,” he explained.
“He rang me a few times and it means a lot when a manager is telling you that he wants you to be part of his team that he wants to win the league. It’s a club going places and I want to help them into the Football League.
“In effect it’s really League Three, almost all of the teams are full time and they’ve shown in the cup that they are a match for League One and Two clubs. Whoever gets promoted invariably does well in the Football League.
“I could have gone to a club in a higher league but the set up and challenge here suits me and Fleetwood will go higher. The stadium is very impressive and I’ve got a manager that I want to work with who’ll give me an opportunity to play first team football.”
A quick glimpse around the Fleetwood website gives an idea about how professional and serious the club is with a £4.5m ground development well underway to make Highbury Stadium compliant for the Football League.
Last summer pre-season training was completed in Austria but this time it’ll all seem rather familiar to Hughes with the club heading to Stirling University.
After three years of total commitment to Celtic the 20-year-old naturally has regrets about moving on but is a realist and looking forward to the future.
“After leaving Celtic things have happened far quicker than I thought,” he added. “I never said I’d rule anything out when I left. I know a fair bit about Fleetwood and once I spoke to the people I made up my mind to sign.
“Twelve months ago I wouldn’t have expected to be in this position- it was disappointing that things didn’t work out at Celtic but I’m happy to sign for Fleetwood.
“At Celtic it’s going to be very hard for anyone to move from the u-19s into the first team- it’s a massive leap although I’m pleased to see James Forrest doing well. There’s a really big squad there and the manager is looking to add to that.
“I’ll be keeping an eye for how Celtic are doing and look forward to going back as a fan. I’ll try and get along to see the 19s play and see if they can make it 3-in-a-row.”
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Good luck son…hope you make it…
thanks for your efforts…
With no reserve league, will be very hard to bring players into the first team. I would put the youths and reserves into English equivalent, would give them more of a test.
Wishing you every success at Fleetwood Town. ps. stay out of the Steamer