SKIPPER Danny Livesey says Barrow AFC should have no qualms about contesting their FA Trophy first-round clash on Sutton Coldfield Town’s 3G artificial pitch a week on Saturday.

Yesterday’s draw pitted the Bluebirds against the Evo-Stik Premier Division side, who booked their place in the first round proper with a 1-0 third-qualifying round home success over Stalybridge Celtic.

This is the fifth season the West Midlanders have played on their ‘Fifa accredited’ synthetic surface which is assessed every year.

Asked whether Town’s Coles Lane pitch will hand the hosts any sort of advantage, Livesey said: “It maybe does in terms of matches, but not really, because we train on 3G every day now at Lancaster University.

“So that can’t be really seen as an excuse. It will probably the first time any of us have played in a (competitive) game on 3G so that will be an experience.

“But gone are the days of the old plastic pitches – the old one at Oldham’s Boundary Park, etc. They are all pretty much high class now, I think the only difference is when you slide you take half the skin off your leg!

“There’s still a fairly big difference between natural and artificial pitches. The bounce is fairly big on an artificial pitch whereas when the ball is coming out of the sky a grass pitch can sometimes take away some of the power.

“When you play on a 3G you know it’s going to be a fairly consistent and bigger bounce and the balls tend to skid on a little more.

“So that’s something you’ve got to take into account. But apart from that, there can’t really be any excuses.”

Town earned promotion into the top Evo-Stik tier last season by triumphing in the Division One South play-offs.

They sit 15th in the Premier Division with Neil Tooth’s men having won four and lost four of their 10 home league games this term.

Barrow’s recent overall cup record has been dreadful and they crashed out of the FA Cup at their first hurdle this season with a 1-0 reverse at their former Conference North title rivals Fylde.

Looking ahead to AFC’s upcoming trophy tie that will see them lock horns with lower-level opposition, the centre-back added: “They are all really tough games, especially when you go away to these sort of grounds and you know that people want to see an upset.

“The last couple of games we have played in knock-out competitions, we haven’t done too well. So we know that there’s a little bit of pressure on us this time to go there and start getting further in these cup competitions because we haven’t been doing very well – last season and obviously looking at the Fylde game this year.”

Livesey missed Saturday’s 2-1 home victory over Woking after picking up a groin strain last week.

The lion-hearted defender hopes to resume training on Thursday although he believes he may have to wait longer, while giving himself a 50-50 chance of being available for Saturday’s home game against Boreham Wood.