PAUL Casson returns to Holker Street next week with his Barrow AFC side starting the season better than even he thought they would.

The always-positive Bluebirds owner expects a big season from his team under manager Paul Cox, but has been pleasantly surprised by the strong start the newly-assembled squad have made.

AFC sit seventh in the National League, with 18 points from 10 games – out of the play-off places on goal-difference alone.

They have suffered only two defeats so far ahead of today's trip to Lincoln City (3pm kick-off), and Casson is becoming more and more optimistic about what lies ahead.

“It's starting to bubble up nicely now,” said the Texas-based telecommunications millionaire. “It's gone a little bit better than we thought it would.

“It has been pretty much spot-on. The two games we lost, Tranmere away was their home opener and that was always going to be difficult, because teams unless they are really bad will always win their home opener. Then there was Dover and that was on the back of a brutal schedule where we were at Torquay and then we had a home game and then it was down to Dover. Everybody was in a bad mood for that game.

“But the team has rallied and come back. You might say we should have had four more points, because we had those two late equalisers (in 1-1 home draws with Bromley and Boreham Wood), but that's football for you – you have those ups and downs in a season.

“All in all, I think the team is coming together very well. Essentially, it's a brand new team and it was going to take them a while. But the players who we brought in who we thought could be very special do seem to be heading in that direction.

“Byron Harrison seems like he is starting to feel comfortable now and he will be a handful. Richie Bennett is starting to play really well, and I think everyone is starting to slot in.

“Coxy tells me we're 'this percentage away' or 'we're that percentage away'. After the Boreham Wood draw, I called him and he said we were two or three per cent away. There are a couple of games which we should have won but didn't, but we are pretty content with where we are.

“You never want to say that you don't want to be top of the league, but from a psychological point-of-view, it's nice to be chasing. At this point in the season, 10 games in, the team is not quite all it should be in terms of the ability I think it has, and I just think we are perfectly poised off the play-off spots on goal difference.

“If somebody had said 'after 10 games, you'll be off the play-off spots on goal difference with 18 points,' I would have bitten their hand off.”

Casson and Holker Street chief executive Austin Straker will hold an open meeting with Barrow AFC fans in the Crossbar next week.

The informal meeting will take place on Thursday (7.30pm start, doors open at 7pm) and will give supporters the chance to ask the duo any questions they have relating to the club.