NEW Motherwell striker Wes Fletcher could have been forgiven for developing a bit of an inferiority complex as he tried to make the breakthrough at Burnley as four of the brightest striking stars in English football were ahead of him in the pecking order.
Fletcher could not get a look in with Danny Ings, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez and Steven Fletcher vying for the attacking slots and ultimately cut his losses two seasons ago to get regular football with York City.
However, he soaked up what he could from his more illustrious colleagues and is relishing the challenge of firing Motherwell back up to a more stable position in the Premiership after plunging into the play-off last season.
He said: "I found it hard to break through at Burnley because there were a few good strikers ahead of me so I was mostly out on loan.
"There were Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez, Steven Fletcher and Danny Ings ahead of me so it was four internationals, basically.
"They were very good players to pick up things from. They're all doing very well now and I looked at them and tried to learn from them.
"At the end, I wanted to get out and play and score some goals so I went to York. Luckily I'd a good first year but in the second I'd trouble with my knee and it took me a while to get back from that. I'm fully back from that now.
"The manager has seen me playing and he knows a lot of my previous managers.
"I had a few offers from League Two but when it was a comparison between them and the Scottish Premiership it was a no-brainer, really."
Motherwell also signed centre-back Louis Laing yesterday in a new two-year deal after the 22-year-old spent the second half of last season at Fir Park.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article