LEE Harrison said signing Tommy Fletcher was the reward of some hard work from Wanderers' back room staff.

The Blues first team coach was credited by manager Gareth Ainsworth as being the man to unearth Fletcher, with the 18-year-old central defender impressing since joining from non league Cheshunt.

But Harrison said that was all in a day's work for the Wanderers staff, who as well as coaching have taken on the roles of scouting for new players.

Ainsworth summed up their efforts this week by driving for seven hours to Perth to watch tomorrow's opponents Morecambe beat St Johnstone 1-0 in a friendly.

Harrison said: "We are always out having a look at people. If we hear from someone in the game and there might be something, we go out and watch them. Sometimes there's nothing there but you have to go and look at them.

"That's the position we're in at this club. We've not got a youth team so there won't be seven or eight coming through like there was last year, so these ones are important."

He added there was an emphasis on bringing in younger players, with Fletcher a case in point.

He said: "Even if you look at non league and the 26 or 27 year olds, they are on decent salaries so to bring them in and say we are going to develop them is maybe sometimes a big risk. If they are the finished article, a lot of other clubs would be after them.

"We have to look at development and ask if they have got something we can do something with, and do they fit in with what we are trying to do."

Reflecting on the signing of Fletcher, Harrison said: "A couple of people had seen him and they said to me, 'You've got to get him'. I hadn't seen him but I'd had reports on him and done a lot of digging - the amount of stuff we go through in the office to find out about players before we bring them in is immense.

"Tommy had been up to Hartlepool and they couldn't do anything at the end of the season. He's not someone we were out and out looking for but we got him in and he's one of those players who we'll look to push on and bring him on as a first team player.

"It's nice to hear Gaz has given me the credit but Tommy does that himself by coming in and doing well."