BARROW AFC will cast their eye over a host of triallists on Saturday as Paul Cox looks to complete his squad.

The Bluebirds boss will field a squad made up of potential recruits for the opening pre-season fixture against Furness Select (2pm kick-off).

With the match coming just two days after AFC's contracted players returned to training, Cox felt it was too soon to put them into action, lest there be unnecessary injuries.

But, with several gaps still to fill in his squad for the 2016/17 season, he has chosen to put out a squad of triallists eager to impress and earn a deal with Barrow.

“There are some decent triallists on show,” said Cox. “They all have a pedigree.

“Everyone who is coming on trial with us, should have started their own pre-season a couple of weeks ago to get themselves to a good level of fitness.

“The boys who will be playing that game, a lot of them will be players who have been released by league clubs and under-21s academies and things like that.

“It's an important game for us, one, because the first team will be in and around that game meeting the supporters, and two, because it gives us a chance to make early decisions on trialists. That is the main factor.

“What we don't want is a group of 15 trialists staying with us all the way through, because that impacts on game-time and time spent with the squad we have already signed.

“We will make decisions on them after the Furness game. We have got three days training building up to it and that is long enough for me to make a decision on the majority.

“There will be some who will probably be kept on for the next phase, where they will stay on for training and will be involved in the Airbus game.”

Among those players set to feature for Barrow tomorrow are former Liverpool youth player Henoc Mukendi, who has spent time with Northampton Town and Marine, and winger Stefan McCluskey, who played for Morton in the Scottish Championship last season.

There is also one player who featured in the Australian A-League and others released by the likes of Cheltenham Town and Birmingham City.

No-one who featured in the number of behind-closed doors matches Barrow played under Cox in the early months of this year will be involved.

On the decision not to include contracted first-team squad members, Cox added: “We will only have been back for a couple of days and it will be too early for the boys to play.

“We'll only have had two or three training sessions and it will be too early for me to risk anything.

“We are only going to run with a squad of 20 or so, so to lose anyone that early would be stupid of me. We need them conditioning before we put them into a scenario where it is a competitive game.

“We're not being disrespectful to the fixture in any way, it's just that I've got to make sure that the players we have brought in are conditioned properly before they are put into that environment.”