NORTHWICH Victoria predator Richie Bennett will be banging in the goals for Barrow AFC next season.

The 24-year-old and Hampton and Richmond defender Moussa Diarra are the first new faces added to Paul Cox’s squad.

Bennett has signed a two-year deal at Holker Street, while Paris-born Diarra won promotion to National League South with Hampton and Richmond last season and is described by Cox as “great in both boxes”.

Bennett is a former team-mate of AFC’s Jordan Williams – who made a stellar impact after joining Barrow from Northwich in January.

He chalked up an impressive 28 goals for Victoria in all competitions this season as they reached the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division One North play-offs – including notching against League Two champions Northampton Town in the FA Cup.

Cox sees the 6ft 4ins former Ashton United front-man as having huge goal-scoring potential at Holker Street, and said: “I’ve kept an eye on both Jordan Williams and Richie Bennett for a number of months now.

“I probably put Jordan Williams on a pedestal when he came in and I probably put a bit too much pressure on him.

“Jordan Williams has hit the ground running since he has been at this level and I think he will get even better. Richie Bennett is very much in the same mould – he has attributes that I believe will take him a long way.

“We beat off a couple of League Two clubs to secure his signature based on him being very good friends with Jordan. Jordan gave us a very good verbal CV in terms of how we do things here and the lad wants to come and improve.

“If we get half as much from him as we have from Jordan, then Richie Bennett will be a top-drawer signing who I think will go and play in the Football League one day.”

Bennett is one of the two strikers Barrow revealed Cox to be in talks with last week, with an announcement on the second expected in the coming days.

That signing is set to be a player who is already a proven goalscorer in the Conference, while Bennett will be a player who will be testing himself at a higher level than he has played before.

“He scored 28 goals this season,” said Cox of his new signing. “He’s big and powerful.

“I think we need four decent centre forwards next year if we’re going to compete.

“The one thing that caught us out this season is that we played the last four or five games of the season with makeshift centre-halves and if we’re going to be contenders and people are going to take us seriously, then we need a proper squad with real competition for places.

“He played alongside Jordan and they played very well alongside each other in a front three.

“I think this kid is a bit special. He’s got a very articulate left foot, he’s good with his back to goal, he’s big and he’s quick.

“I’ve been watching him for a while. We watched him that often and we believe he’s a great player.”