PAUL Cox is already focused on building for next season after Barrow AFC ended this campaign with victory over Wrexham, writes PAUL TURNER.

Andy Cook netted twice – taking his tally for the season to 25 – as the Bluebirds ran out 2-0 winners at Holker Street.

Cox – who described himself as ‘the eternal optimist’ over Cook’s decision on a new AFC contract – declared himself pleased with the progress made at AFC over the past five months, but said there was still a long way to go.

“I think we finished the season as I wanted to,” said Cox, whose team are unbeaten in 11 matches at home and lost just one of their final 14 National League games. “I had a little chat with the players before the game about doing what’s right by everybody – by the football club, by the supporters who came out today, but more importantly by themselves.

“It’s a long break now until when we come back and it’s a long break until we play the next game, so I always like to end the season on a high – it’s a long period to wait to put things right.

“The players have been excellent. They have taken on board what we have tried to put across to them and they have deserved everything they have achieved.”

He added: “The one thing I have tried to get across to everyone since I have been at this club is that we are in a league that is full of huge football clubs – the Grimsbys, the Wrexhams, you look at the resources at Forest Green. We’ve really got to work that little bit harder, be a little bit more aggressive in how we do things if we are going to compete with these boys.

“Everyone seems to be jumping on board. The support has been magnificent, the players are working extremely hard, but I still want more.

“The season has finished for the players, but my work is just beginning now.

“I want to work extremely hard in the summer to make sure we have a little bit more quality in depth to add to some of the good players we’ve already got at this football club.”

Speaking about Cook, who picked up two more player-of-the-year awards – from the National Supporters’ Club and the Bluebirds Supporters Trust – after the Wrexham win, Cox said: “I’m the eternal optimist – the glass is always half-full. I’d love to say that Andy Cook would love to sign for this football club again.

“I think what’s doing him from my personal conversations with him – I’m hoping he wouldn’t mind me talking about them – is that he has a desire to play in the Football League. You can’t have a dig at him for that, because we all want to do it at the highest level. We all want to be successful.

“I’ve told him to jump on board with us here and get on now. You can see that the fans love him to bits and the whole football club wants him to stay.

“Andy Cook has got to make the right decision for the right reasons and I’m hoping that decision comes with signing a contract with Barrow.”

The win over Wrexham meant Barrow finished the National League season in 11th place – 17 points clear of the relegation zone they were so close to when Cox took over in November.

The manager assessed the progress made by the time of the final day triumph, and said: “We saw a team today that understood what it takes to win a football match now. I thought we played without any fear and I never felt in any part of this game that we were ever going to get beat.

“That’s a hard feeling to come by, because there has been a lot of sweat and tears on the training ground, there has been a lot of digging deep to get to where we have got. It could have been totally different. The first game when I came in (a 2-1 win over Woking in November), if we had lost that, we would have been a point above the relegation zone.

“I’ve used the word relegation a number of times, because, one, I like to be honest; and two, it was the reality. What we’ve done is we’ve galvanised a group of players who were low on confidence, low on self-belief, and we’ve got them to understand that this game is about winning.

“You can tell from the dressing room after the game, before the game and at half-time that the guys are enjoying winning.”