Last updated at 14:41, Wednesday, 01 July 2009

FORMER Blackpool striker John Murphy was among the trialists at Barrow AFC’s first pre-season training session last night.

The vastly-experienced 32-year-old – who played over 220 times for the Tangerines between 1999 and 2006 – was one of several trialists on show at Myerscough College, near Preston, last night.

Murphy – a 6ft 1in forward who also starred at Chester City and Macclesfield – was injured for most of last season and was released by Irish club St Patrick’s Athletic in February.

Barrow joint-boss Dave Bayliss said: “John’s had a couple of injuries over the last year, but he’s got a hell of a scoring record in the Football League.

“He has to prove his fitness to us, but the way he looked last night it shows he’s really looked after himself.

“The rest since he left St Pat’s appears to have done him the world of good. We’ll assess his fitness further and he’ll play in some friendlies for us. We can have a good look at him and vice-versa.”

There were around 20 players at the two-hour session last night, with an hour-and-a-half of running followed by 30 minutes of ball work.

Bayliss said: “The lads have come back, some fitter than we expected. They looked really fit and excited, which was great. Some of them were saying they’ve had too long off! It was a little bit quiet because there were new faces, but by the end of the session they were all mixing well.

“When the current players saw some of the other lads we’ve brought down they were all buzzing.”

He added: “There were a few lads there who you couldn’t really call trialists. It’s more a case of us trying to convince them to sign, which is another important reason why we want to make these pre-season sessions as good and enjoyable as possible.”

l Bayliss this morning confirmed that an as yet unnamed Premier League club have agreed to visit Holker Street for a friendly. The details for the game – likely to be on July 25 – will hopefully be finalised early next week. The club are also hoping to land a second home friendly against another Premier League outfit.

First published at 11:36, Wednesday, 01 July 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk