PAUL Casson’s strong belief in Barrow AFC’s squad has not been shaken by the underwhelming start to the 2015/16 campaign.

The Bluebirds owner expects them to earn some level of success over the bank holiday weekend, when they take on winless duo Southport and FC Halifax Town, who occupy the bottom two places in the National League.

Barrow have collected just four points from their opening five games and sit fifth from bottom.

But they have already played a few of the division’s promotion contenders and Casson believes AFC have been ‘desperately unlucky’ and that it is only a matter of time before Darren Edmondson’s men find their feet having suffered an early-season blip.

Casson highlighted Barrow’s busy treatment room, with Andy Cook, Dan Pilkington, Dave Symington and Ashley Grimes all missing, through injury or illness, last weekend when they fell to a 2-1 defeat at Cheltenham.

A further blow arrived during the Whaddon Road clash as influential defender Danny Livesey was forced to retreat in the second half with a dead leg. Paddy Lacey also came off after suffering cramp, with the midfielder lacking match fitness.

Casson mentioned the unjust red card dished out to Livesey in only the 17th minute of AFC’s 4-0 loss at Forest Green, a pivotal decision which saw the hosts take the lead from the penalty spot having been the inferior side until that point.

“I’m not really counting points at this point in time,” insists Casson.

“Basically, if you look at the games early on and you look rationally at Grimsby away, Forest Green away and Cheltenham away you would have been a bit of an optimist to think we would have got much out of that, even with a full-strength team early on when we are getting everyone gelled to get rolling.

“There’s nothing that particularly concerns me. If we don’t start to pick up points, especially in the next two games, then I’ll start to become concerned. Both of those games, we would expect to pick up points.”

Edmondson may make team changes for tomorrow’s game against Southport (3pm kick-off), with strike duo Cook and Grimes expected to be in contention for recalls after being sidelined with a knee injury and tonsillitis respectively. The duo returned to training this week and are expected to be available.

Winger Benjamin van den Broek is in line to make his Barrow debut after receiving international clearance. Symington, who has been absent with a hamstring injury, was assessed yesterday and it was hoped that he would resume training today. He could return to the AFC squad this weekend.

Fellow winger Pilkington is still ruled out with a groin problem.

AFC opened their campaign with a 2-1 home victory over Dover Athletic, and while they were battered 4-1 at Grimsby – who like Cheltenham and Forest Green can be classed as genuine promotion candidates – they have also drawn 1-1 at home against Guiseley. “The Grimsby game, we got a bit of an education, but I haven’t been afraid of everybody else,” added Casson. “Dover have played well since we beat them and are 10th, so they are obviously a good team, as we thought they were.

“We did okay against them. At Forest Green, we played well until the sending off and against Guiseley we probably should have won. With a full squad at Cheltenham, or even with Danny Livesey and Paddy Lacey being able to do 90 minutes, we probably would have got something out of that game.

“And we’ve played three of the better teams in the league. I’m just a little frustrated that we haven’t been able to put our best 11 or 16 out there week after week to get them rolling.”

After tomorrow’s game, AFC will head to second-from-bottom Halifax on Monday. Casson is also still confident that Barrow possess the potential to compete in the top half of the table and ultimately be in the ‘play-off conversation’.

“I think it’s an excellent team,” said Casson. “We might not see the best of it for a month or two because the start has been delayed by circumstances that have not exactly all been under our control. Some of them have been within our control, like Steve Williams getting sent off (at Forest Green).

“The ridiculous referee’s decision (at Forest Green) with that penalty, I mean just little stuff like that has not allowed a smooth transition.

“Our start has been brutal. There will be teams, later on in this season, who will be happy that they played us early on because this team will just get better and better.”