Last updated 15:27, Monday, 06 October 2008

MARK Boyd could not contain his delight after the wonder goal that caused the shock Conference result of the weekend.

The midfield maestro’s early free-kick was enough to give Barrow a much-needed three points and repeat the win achieved on their last visit to the Aggborough Stadium 10 years ago.

The rank outsiders not only stopped a run of four consecutive defeats but also ended the unbeaten home record of Kidderminster Harriers, who had won four on the bounce.

It also means The Bluebirds can go into tomorrow night’s home game with the new second-placed side, Burton Albion, in buoyant mood.

Boyd had been going through a recent lean spell since his superb free-kick in the seasonal opener against Oxford, which was runner-up in the Setanta goal-of-the-month competition.

He made a crucial mistake which led to defeat at Northwich and was substituted during the second half of last weekend’s home game with Ebbsfleet.

But Boyd, bolstered by an extra man around him in midfield, showed his class by deceiving England C keeper Adam Bartlett at the near post in similar fashion to the Oxford game.

He said afterwards: “It was one of those that went up and round the wall and bounced just in front of the line.

“I don’t know if it was 25 or 30 yards out, you decide and make it sound better!”

AFC joint-manager Dave Bayliss says they had decided to adopt a new 3-5-2 formation, which crowded out the midfield.

He added: “We do want to play entertaining football but we do leave ourselves open at times.

“No disrespect to Mark, he is a fantastic footballer but hasn’t got the legs to get about quite as much as the younger fitter players.

“We compensated by putting Andy Bond and Ashley Winn next to him and I thought Boydy was superb.

“His free-kick was tremendous and first half they never looked like getting back in it, we stopped giving them space.

“Second half they hit the bar with a free-kick but it was never a free-kick in the first place.

“Justice was done in the end and we had that little bit of luck we haven’t had over the last few weeks.”

The manager felt they could now go into the games with Burton and away to leaders Crawley on Saturday with their confidence back.

Says Bayliss: “It is only one game and we could be back in it again on Tuesday, you don’t get any easy rides in this league.“But the pride and passion was back, there were alot of winners and characters out there on the pitch.”