Fleetwood Town manager Scott Brown hints at changes for Preston North End clash

Fleetwood Town boss Scott Brown has said he will make changes against Preston North End. His side drew 0-0 with the Lilywhites’ Championship rivals Blackburn Rovers over the weekend at home.

The Cod Army have also played the likes of Waterford, Dundee, Hearts and Tranmere Rovers in this pre-season as they look to get up to speed. They finished 13th in the League One table last term and were comfortably in mid-table.

Fleetwood have a couple of former Preston players in their ranks such as Josh Earl and Danny Mayor. Ex-Celtic man Brown has told their club website: “We need to make sure we have those two shapes. We play 3-5-2 but also want to be settled on a 4-2-3-1 as well. That will be a building process at this moment in time but we’re happy with those two shapes.

“The good thing for us is that we can freshen it up. We can throw in a couple of the older and experienced players. Whether it is a friendly or not, it’s a jersey and if you can play well in these friendly games you get to keep the jersey so if you’re out injured and somebody takes your place, that’s what we want. We want competition throughout the whole squad.

“They’ll be changes on Tuesday. We’re going again. That’s what these friendlies are based on. We want to make sure that we manage to get minutes into people’s legs. The games are coming thick and fast.”

Preston will look to use the game as another opportunity to get their players some more minutes. New signings Calvin Ramsay, Will Keane, Duane Holmes and Mads Frøkjær-Jensen all featured against Aberdeen last time out, with the latter scoring a brace in the 2-0 win.

The Lilywhites then head to Stockport County on Saturday in their final friendly. Their first game of the 2023/24 campaign is away at Bristol City on Saturday 5th August.