DESPITE seeing his side go down 2-1 at Maidstone United, Barrow AFC boss Paul Cox is upbeat about his side’s chances of making the play-offs.

“It’s not over yet as far as I am concerned,” said Cox, whose team now sit seventh, three points off the top five. “We have taken six points from three tough away games, which I think it a half decent tally.

“We will try and give the boys a bit of a breather now and then go ahead into what are going to be some really important matches.”

Barrow have had a tough couple of weeks, having to play on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and this seemed to catch up with the Bluebirds, as Cox admitted.

“Coming into this game, the fear for me was the consecutive matches,” he said. “We have played a lot of games and put a lot into them as well. Playing on the 3G surface in the heat was probably the last thing we needed.

“The lads have put in great shift and have tried to work extremely hard. I just think that the consecutive games probably caught up with us a bit.

“We started well, but we were a little bit off the pace and from the last 15 minutes of the first half we didn’t look ourselves.

“You have to give credit to Maidstone as they are fighting for their lives and I thought they were the better side.”

The Bluebirds might have got something out of the match against the Stones had they taken their chances.

After Paul Turnball had given Barrow the early lead, Jordan Williams had a chance to beat Maidstone keeper Lee Worgan and then Danny Livesey’s header struck the post.

“If you look parts of the game that change the outcome of the game, we were 1-0 up and Jordan shot early and then Danny’s header hit the post. It is those kind of moments change games,” said Cox.

“If you go into a 2-0 lead then it gives you something to hold onto. We tried to make some changes early on in the second half but we looked a bit tepid in terms of the dynamics of the game.

“This game was a bridge too far for us. I said to the lads in the dressing room afterwards to dust themselves down.

“We have got games coming up against Woking, Bromley and North Ferriby. Let’s go and pick up maximum points from all three matches and we will see where that leaves us going into the last games of the season.”