Last updated at 16:22, Monday, 25 February 2013

DAVE Bayliss has urged Barrow AFC to add further fuel to their growing momentum when they take on the daunting challenge of attempting to upset promotion front-runners Wrexham tomorrow.

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The Bluebirds’ dominant display in Saturday’s goalless stalemate at relegation rivals Lincoln City was only marred by a lack of end product, as they sought to build on last Tuesday’s encouraging 2-0 home win over Woking.

Now Barrow are bracing themselves for the visit of table-topping Wrexham who booked their place in the FA Trophy final over the weekend with a 4-3 aggregate victory over Gainsborough.

But with Bayliss’s men still just one win away from jumping out of the Conference Premier drop-zone, the Barrow boss is more concerned with his own side’s progression.

“The players have got to keep playing the way they did on Saturday,” said Bayliss. “We can’t play as well as we have in the last two games and then throw it all away tomorrow. You have to keep going because the season is a slog and every game is massive when you’re in our position.

“If we keep playing like that and show the same determination and attitude, then it might go all the way to the last game of the season.

“I’ve always said that it’s going to be an up-and-down season – that’s proved to be the case and we’ll keep fighting.

“Even after the Mansfield game (Barrow were hammered 8-1 at Field Mill, on February 9) I was confident we would get out of trouble, and I’m still confident.”

Barrow’s top striker Adam Boyes will be assessed today after missing Saturday’s game with a calf injury, and the Bluebirds missed the 22-year-old’s attacking prowess in spurning a host of chances at Sincil Bank.

But while Bayliss questioned his side’s decision-making in the final third, he refused to blame Boyes’s absence on his side’s failure to claim all three points in hailing a superb team performance and the ‘unbelievable’ amount of chances they created.

With Boyes on the sidelines and midfielder Garry Hunter continuing to fill in for right-back Matt Flynn, who has been carrying his own calf injury, Bayliss has not ruled out making a late raid on the transfer market.

But in guarding against any knee-jerk reactions, Bayliss added: “We got offered a decent right-back in the past few weeks but we felt Garry Hunter merited his place in the team, as I think he’s been one of our most consistent players in the last three games.

“So we don’t want to keep bringing in loan players if we don’t need to. We’ve got a very small squad and we want to keep using our contracted players as much as possible. You can get loan players in who don’t particularly care about the club, although some of them do.

“So it’s important we keep the contracted players who want to fight and battle for the shirt.”

But Bayliss also admits the loss of Boyes once again brought the threadbare nature of his squad sharply into focus.

“We’d obviously still like a bit more quality because if we would have had another fully fit striker then we would have played him on Saturday,” said Bayliss.

“But we only had (winger) Danny Rowe and Lee McEvilly is not 100 per cent match fit, so we had to go with what we had.

“We’ll need all of our bodies available between now and the end of the season because we’ve got an horrendous March coming up, when we will play nine games, and that will make or break us.

“But if the lads keep fighting the way they are at the moment then we’re confident we will get out of trouble.

“We would have to make sure we made right additions and bring in the right type of players.

“The lads who are playing at the moment have got the shirts and are doing really well. We’ve created a number of chances in the past two games so we’re doing something right in that respect – we’re just not finishing the chances.

“But we’ll keep going, and if the right player comes along, then maybe we’d look at it.”

First published at 16:13, Monday, 25 February 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk