BLUEBIRDS boss Paul Cox hopes to prove his National League rivals wrong by turning Barrow AFC from Conference also-rans into contenders.

The January transfer window gave Cox a view of how other teams in the division view his side.

AFC were thwarted in numerous attempts to bring in players, though this week they have been successful in landing young Everton winger Michael Donohue on a month’s loan.

Cox realises other clubs are looking down their noses at Barrow and feels that, given time, that perception can be made to change and they will have to take the Holker Street side seriously.

“Outside, no-one gives us a chance,” said Cox, who is still working with owner Paul Casson on adding further numbers to the ranks through the loan system.

“We had some cheap shots from clubs we have tried to do business with and I’ll let other people read that in the press and they will know what I am talking about, saying we shouldn’t be signing players from certain clubs because they don’t perceive us as a big club.

“That’s okay with me. My opinion on that is that roles can be reversed very quickly in football.

“I can remember when Forest Green were just a small team in Gloucestershire. Look where we are now. There has to be a belief we can achieve that.

“From the outside, we have tried to do business with a few clubs who probably look down their noses at us. That annoys me, I know it annoys the chairman, but it’s the place where we are at the minute and we have to have the desire to want to rectify that and to want to prove people wrong – that’s what this business is all about, proving people wrong.

“You look round the football club at the minute and I view it as being a football club that doesn’t want to believe, or which lacks belief in itself at the minute. I want to put a smile on people’s faces, I want to create a winning formula, I want to create a football club which is consistently known as being a winning football club.

“I want a football club which is up there competing not just for the play-offs but for the championship. To do that is going to take a bit of time, but I think with Paul Casson at the helm, some good planning and some strong foundations laid down, we can achieve that.”