PAUL Cox labelled his players’ effort as ‘out of this world’ as Barrow AFC came through a fourth game in 11 days with three valuable points at Chester.

Cox said his team had ‘bled for the club’ as the Bluebirds made it 10 points from 12 in a frantic period – which continues at Maidstone United on Saturday – as goals from Richie Bennett and Jordan Williams sealed a 2-1 success.

The Chester goal came in the 89th minute as Barrow visibly tired from their recent exertions – with Williams picking up a yellow cards for a challenge that bore all the hallmarks of a player out on his feet – and Cox was quick to praise the team’s efforts.

He said: “I think the performance and the result was excellent. I think the effort from the players, though, was out of this world. I think every fan who travelled down tonight knew that we had 16 players to pick from, knew that we had some very tired bodies, and every one of these lads lad absolutely bled for the club tonight – they worked really hard.

“Some of the tackles – the Lindon Meikle one, the Jordan one – I don’t think were malicious, but these lads were just dead on their feet, they had really worked extremely hard.

“We’ve spoken about how that desire, that hard work, that willingness to work for each other, can make you a success. I’m over the moon for the boys tonight.

“There have been some tough games – Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday – we had 16 players to choose from tonight and we couldn’t change much, but each and every one of them, including the subs who came on, just ran and worked extremely hard. You could tell at the end.

“We’ll dust ourselves down – the boys are asking if there’s a spa day on Thursday, we’ll have to ask the chairman for that – but they deserve it.

“We’ll go into Saturday and see what we can turn out on Saturday.”

The manager added: “There were a few who were dead on their feet, and we’ve got to pick them up. These boys have gone through a brick wall for this football club, and you could tell from the support – who came down in numbers again today – that they were over the moon just from the desire to get a result tonight.

“It makes the end of the season exciting. We hope they travel down to Maidstone, but more importantly come and back us at home, get behind the boys, because they really are making a fight of it.

“Somebody came through with a stat the other day that we are the only team who have played three away games on the trot this season. It’s been tough, and we have covered some miles, but more than anything, we haven’t had the numbers to really freshen things up and to give one or two lads a breather.

“It’s been Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, we’ve been on the road and the boys have been superb with the way they have looked after themselves, with the professionalism they have shown and their performance levels.

“You could tell tonight, in the last 15 minutes, we altered the shape tactically, but you could tell one or two were running on empty. We’ve got to make sure they are wrapped up in cotton wool now, because once again it’s another cup final on Saturday.

Cox recognised the contributions of makeshift full-backs Matty Platt and Dan Rowe to Barrow’s win at the Deva Stadium.

Rowe replaced the suspended Nick Anderton on the left of the defence, with Platt in for the injured Shaun Beeley – who could be back for the trip to Maidstone – on the right.

Neither was playing in a familiar role – midfielder Rowe was in only his second game in the position, while central defender Platt has played there only a handful of times for the youth team at Blackburn Rovers – and Cox said: “It’s tough sometimes. You’ve got a young lad from Blackburn who, I must say, since he has been here, his attitude has been top-class, and I think he’s going to develop into a quality centre-back.

“You ask him to play out of position – he says he has played there a couple of times in the youth team – and it was a bit of a gamble, because you see the size of him and he is going to be a proper centre-half as he matures.

“Then, you’ve got a centre midfielder in Rowey, and this was the second time he has played left-back. He has done exceptionally well.

“I just think, overall, apart from the last couple of minutes when we looked really, really tired and we got sloppy, I never thought we were in any trouble of conceding a goal.”