Last updated at 16:50, Wednesday, 02 January 2013

BARROW AFC manager Dave Bayliss was full of praise for his team after they ended a three-month wait for a league win with a 1-0 victory at Gateshead.

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The Bluebirds remain bottom of the Blue Square Bet Premier table but their spirited performance in the North-East has moved them within three points of safety.

The only goal of the game was scored after just 62 seconds by striker Adam Boyes, his 12th of the season in all competitions.

Speaking after the match, Bayliss said: “We were very disappointed after Saturday (a 4-1 FA Cup defeat at Macclesfield) and the Gateshead game on Boxing Day (which Barrow lost 2-0), so this was a good result.

“We did a little bit of work yesterday on how we wanted the team to set up today, and I thought it worked really well. We rode our luck at times in the first half but we have had three or four great chances to finish the game as well, and I felt in the second half we played better defensively.

“We were very open in our last two games and tried to attack teams but it didn’t work out, so we changed the system a bit today (Barrow played a 4-5-1 formation).

“We have probably played better this season and got beat, but I just thought there was a different side to us today, one we haven’t shown in recent weeks and in the end I felt we deserved the win.

“It was a game which could have gone either way but I thought we worked tremendously hard and deserved the little bit of luck we got.

“Saying that, we must remember it is only one win. It’s a welcome three points yes, but we have to build on it now, we have to go to Kidderminster on Saturday and get something, if not, winning today is a waste of time.”

He added: “That was the best Boyesy has played, I thought. He scored early on and that gave him a lift.

“It’s also the first time we’ve been ahead in a game for a while, I think. It gave us something to hang on to.

“I felt we were more comfortable in the second half, after they got through us too easy in the first half. (Barrow keeper) Danny (Hurst) made two great saves in the second half but we had good opportunities ourselves which we didn’t take.

“The lads are buzzing. After all the stuff we’ve been through, the criticism we have taken, we have shown we are a decent side today and that we will stick together.”

Bayliss, who has seen striker Louis Almond return to parent club Blackpool, hopes to add to his threadbare squad this week, but says he needs a meeting with the club’s board of directors first.

“We do need bodies, more players into the team and more quality into the squad,” said the Bluebirds boss.

“We have two or three players going back from loan (the loans of Burnley duo Joe Jackson and Tom Anderson end after Saturday’s trip to Kidderminster), so we do need more bodies, otherwise it will be two players on the bench.

“We haven’t really got any players to go out of the club because we have a small squad anyway.

“It’s up to the club now, whether they will give us the funds to get bodies in.

“We know it’s very tight, the club work very hard putting wages in the bank every week for players. Is there money available? I don’t know. I haven’t had a conversation with them (the board) yet, believe it or not.

“We were due to have a conversation but it never happened so I’m still none the wiser about who I can and can’t bring in. We have three days until the next game so I’d like to think we’d have done it by then, but you don’t know.

“I’m prepared to have a meeting any day of the week, I’ve already proposed that but if people from the board don’t get in touch with me there is not much I can do.

“My phone is on 24 hours a day and I’m waiting for that phone call to have that meeting regarding what we can bring in player-wise.

“The club work extremely hard and hopefully they can free up more cash to bring some players in.”

He added: “Louis, like the first time he was on loan with us, set the world on fire early doors and as a young kid they sometimes settle into a bit of a lull. He has had lots of game-time. He’s a young lad with a lot of ability and potential but we need ready-made players now, we can’t bring in another freebie because it’s not really got us anywhere.

“Although saying that, one of the lads we got for nothing, Tom Anderson, was, I felt, absolutely immense today. We have missed that centre-back coming from deep and heading the ball and Tom was a real man today.

“Hopefully we can get something done with Tom (to keep him at Barrow), if not we have another couple of centre-halves we want to bring in.”

First published at 16:08, Wednesday, 02 January 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk