PAUL Cox has identified where his Barrow AFC team need to improve following their goalless draw with Torquay.

The Bluebirds dropped out of the National League play-off places after the Holker Street stalemate, with Dover’s win at North Ferriby United lifting them back up to fifth.

They were unable to craft any clear-cut chances throughout the 90 minutes, despite playing Richie Bennett and Shaun Tuton as an attacking pair, flanked by wingers Jordan William and Connor Thomson.

Cox was happy with the overall displays of his side in winning at Macclesfield and drawing at Aldershot in the past week, but said: “We tried to be very offensive today. I played two out-and-out wingers, two centre-forwards. We tried all we could.

“I thought the first half more than the second half was where we should have affected it more in the final third. There was a really strong wind, but we looked as though we were waiting for something to happen, rather than making something happen, which is very unlike us.

“The boys have worked hard over three very tough games. Now we’ll dust ourselves down. Some of the boys will have a few minutes on Tuesday night (against Rochdale in the Lancashire Senior Cup) and we’ll prepare in the right way for a cup game on Saturday (at Tranmere in the FA Trophy).”

He added: “You look at it and if we had drawn away at Aldershot, drawn away at Macclesfield, had two points away from home then got the three points at home, it would have been a good points haul. I’m not going to get too disappointed.

“There are things we can improve on – I thought up to the last third, we were okay, but there was not a lot of creativity, we seemed anxious with the ball, it was just the basics I thought we could have done better today.

“But every game is a tough game in this league – there are no easy games. There are a lot of teams all around fighting for their lives, fighting for promotion, to improve their league position. I’m not going to be dismissive of any fixture – we’ve got to go and earn the right.

“There are some positives. We kept a clean sheet against a side who are working extremely hard, but I wanted more quality, I wanted more penetration in the last third.

“Sometimes you’ve got to look overall at the three games and say that the points haul has been pretty decent, considering the circumstances we have come up against.”