Last updated at 16:51, Friday, 23 November 2012

THIS week has felt like the longest week ever. Last Saturday’s game against Guiseley didn’t start off the way we had planned.

NEW SIGNING: Barrow AFC defender Matt Flynn in the Evening Mail office HARRY ATKINSON

We weren’t at the races from the off and we got punished by two goals in the first half-hour.

In recent weeks, we have given teams head-starts and this was just the same.

The goal from Boyesy (Adam Boyes) came at the right time for us – it gave us something to build on for the second half and when Gazza (Garry Hunter) latched on to a through ball and slotted it nicely under the keeper, I thought we would go on to win comfortably, but that wasn’t the case.

Both teams had chances and it was a matter of whoever took theirs would win the game, but neither side did.

The atmosphere at the game was great. It’s only in the FA Cup where you get special atmospheres and having the pitch so close to the fans was brilliant.

I was impressed with Guiseley and it will be another tough match in the replay on Tuesday night. Hopefully we can get a win and the tie against Macclesfield will certainly be a good one – and very winnable.

Tuesday’s game against Stockport was a bit of a bad one for us.

We all didn’t play well and up to the standard we know we can. We need to start being a hard to beat team, grind out results and be ugly if we have to.

Stockport got off to a flyer with some sloppy defending from us. When we changed the formation in the second half and nullified the threats they had in the first half, we pulled ourselves together and played quiet well. We stringed some passes together and played some nice football.

The third goal killed us really. We lost the ball in the middle of the park and they counter-attacked quickly.

After Tuesday’s game, most of us had to look at ourselves in the mirror for some home truths, even if we didn’t want to see them.

We also needed to see where we are going wrong so we can put it right – if we don’t, then we will struggle.

Hopefully in today’s game against Lincoln we will perform to the standards we know we can and put things right.

We need to beat the teams around us if we don’t want to be in a relegation battle for the remainder of the season.

The league is so tight at the moment that a couple of wins would put us right up there, but a few losses and we will be in trouble.

The support was brilliant down at Guiseley, we were cheered on even when we were 2-0 down.

Hopefully, we can have a good cup run with a result next week, but the league is important to the club, so we need to start picking up and give the fans something to cheer about.

Keep the faith and thank you for your support.

Don’t stop believing.

Come on you Bluebirds.

MATT FLYNN

First published at 16:22, Friday, 09 November 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk