PAUL Cox wants his players to keep stepping up to the plate as they continue their play-off push at Eastleigh tomorrow.

Barrow head to the south coast on the back of an impressive 2-1 win over Tranmere Rovers at Holker Street on Tuesday.

That victory saw the likes of Inih Effiong, Matty Platt and Akil Wright all come into the team and make a positive impact, while Moussa Diarra stood tall at the heart of the defence in the absence of captain Danny Livesey.

Livesey is set to return tomorrow after being ruled out of the midweek clash following a clash of heads against Sutton last weekend, though Richie Bennett and Liam Hughes will both sit out the second game of two-match suspensions.

Ross Hannah (hamstring) and Dan Rowe (knee) were both substituted against Tranmere, but should be fit to make the trip to Eastleigh, though Byron Harrison is still a week away from full fitness and the likelihood is there will only be four substitutes named once more due to the restriction of five loan players being included in the squad.

Cox is hopeful those players who so impressed against Tranmere will continue to do so, with the big game at Eastleigh followed by another crucial home match with Dagenham and Redbridge next weekend.

He said: “What we've had, what made me go home smiling on Tuesday night, is that there were some players who really laid down the mantle and said 'for these next 11 games, I'm going to be in the 11'.

“We've got some big players who are out of the side at the minute. My hope and my wish is that the performances from those boys who were out there are consistent and give me an incredible headache. That's what I want to happen.

“Other people now have to raise their standards, and managing then becomes very easy.

“Now consistency is key. We've got 11 cup finals now. I wonder where we could possibly be if we were to put in that kind of a performance from Tuesday even for half of the games.”

He added: “Inih was on the verge of going to a Football League club. We've nipped in with a cheeky offer. He played for Grimsby before we signed him, and they were talking about signing him – he scored two goals in a behind-closed-doors game.

“Was I expecting Inih to come in and score 10 or 15 goals before the end of the season? No, I wasn't.

“If Inih starts to understand what he is and what makes him a good player, then he will be a fantastic addition to this football club. He has scored goals at his level, like Richie Bennett had done and like Jordan Williams has, and he probably needs a little bit of time and patience from everybody to acclimatise.

“Platty came in and laid down the mantle, Bully came in again and I thought he was excellent. I thought the two centre-backs were out of this world – I thought Platty did brilliantly for such a young kid, and Moussa didn't miss a thing with his head.

“It was a fantastic debut for Platty.

“You learn a lot about players. He's not our player, he's Blackburn's player, but you learn a lot about him. You learn about him in training, and he wants to become a proper centre-half.

“You saw him on Tuesday, and he has the build and the structure, and some of the kids who come from the academies don't have the mental toughness, but he has come in against what could be classed as the best pairing in this league (former Bluebird Andy Cook and James Norwood), and he has been excellent.”

Cox knows there will be more ups and downs before the season is out, with all of the top teams having blips in recent weeks.

That leaves the play-off race wide open, and the Barrow boss said: “I called it as we were coming into this part of the season. I said there would be some strange, really weird, results now. You’ve got people fighting for their lives down at the bottom of the league; you’ve got people with a great amount of pressure on them at the top of the league – and it is a weird kind of pressure, the pressure to win every game. If you’ve got a championship to win or a play-off place, then it is a weird kind of pressure, it sometimes sucks the dynamics out of any team. We have seen that.

“It's going to be very tight for the last couple of play-off places. There are a lot of teams who are going to have to play each other in and around those play-offs and a lot of teams taking points off each other.

“There could be a scenario where it comes down to the last game of the season, when we play Dover at home. That could be one scenario, there could be another where it is over by then, or another where we have been on a great run that has taken us above that.”