BARROW boss Paul Cox admitted fresh faces are needed to motivate his squad following a third straight league defeat at York City.

The Bluebirds lost 2-1 at Bootham Crescent with one of the home marksmen Amari Morgan-Smith revealing pre-match that he had turned down a loan move to Holker Street from Cheltenham to sign for the bottom-of-the-table Minstermen instead.

Cox will now step up his recruitment drive, saying: “I’ve spoken to a load of players and lost one to a bigger club in our league that would have given us a fresh impetus.

“We’ve got to be patient and make sure we get the right ones for our finances and the group, but I feel the dressing room needs it now, because it can be a huge motivational factor.”

Barrow now play host to top-two Lincoln and Forest Green on Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon respectively, with Cox calling on his players to rediscover the belief that they can compete with clubs boasting more sizeable budgets.

“This was always going to be a difficult part of the season,” he admitted. “We’re coming up against big clubs with huge resources and great histories.

“York have invested massively in their squad. They’ve got just under 40 players on their books and Vadaine Oliver on the bench, who’s been a Football League player.

“Jon Parkin has also come in and they are fighting for their lives, but I still expected a bit better from ourselves. I think a little belief has left us, because everything isn’t going our way.

“Maybe it’s a bit of pressure. Ten games ago, we would have probably won the game 1-0 and we’ve got to get the players into that routine again.

“We didn’t have fear in our game earlier in the season, so I want to take the shackles off again and get the players to relax again a bit.”

Barrow fell behind in the first half to Morgan-Smith’s second goal in as many games since joining York with Jordan Williams responding on 73 minutes.

Ex-Bluebird Sean Newton then struck in stoppage time to settle matters and, while Cox was unimpressed with his team’s defending, he also felt the visitors were victims of a poor refereeing decision.

“We conceded an absolute schoolboy goal for their first,” Cox confessed. “I then thought we played well in the second half and scored a good goal.

“But, with our luck, the referee gave them a throw-in that should have been ours and they get the winner. Having said that, we should have still defended it better.”