ANOTHER lower-league team stands in the way of Barrow AFC reaching the FA Trophy quarter-finals after they were paired with Kidderminster Harriers in the last-16.

The Bluebirds will welcome the National League North promotion contenders to Holker Street on Saturday, February 4, looking to reach the last eight for the first time since 2013.

Manager Paul Cox was pleased to be at home, though he recognises any team who have reached this stage of the competition will be no push-overs.

“It’s at home and that’s a positive thing for us,” said the Bluebirds boss, who hopes to speak with owner Paul Casson this week to further their quest to strengthen the Barrow squad. “Whoever we got, it was always going to be a tough fixture, but it’s one we have to be looking forward to and be pleased with because it is that home tie.

“In any cup competition, when you get to the latter stages, you know you are going to get a tough draw, but being at home just makes it that little bit better.”

It is the third time in as many rounds AFC have been paired with a side from further down the pyramid, having overcome Harriers’ stable-mates Harrogate Town – after a replay – and Evo-Stick Northern Premier League Matlock Town thus far in the competition.

The Bluebirds reached the third round after a tense comeback win over Matlock at Holker Street on Saturday. The Gladiators had led 2-0 with less than half-an-hour to go, thanks to a Marcus Dinanga brace, but three goals in nine minutes saw AFC through 3-2. Richie Bennett scored two of them and captain Danny Livesey bagged the winner.

Harriers, relegated from the National League last season, were 3-0 home victors over Ebbsfleet in the second round, with Josh Ezewele, Tyrone Williams and Andre Brown all netting against the National League South high-fliers.

Both sides have Trophy pedigree, with Barrow having won it twice in 1990 and 2010 – making them the only team to have triumphed at both the old and new Wembley Stadiums in the competition – and Kidderminster once in 1987. Harriers have reached and lost three finals since then.

AFC and Kidderminster drew both of their matches in the 2015/16 league campaign – 1-1 at Holker Street and 0-0 in the reverse fixture near the end of the campaign, a result which sent the Midlanders down.

Cox knows they have rebuilt since then, and added: “They are a club with a strong infrastructure. They have quite a lot of resources to throw at Conference North this year, they have a very young, dynamic side, and they are flying high in what is a tough league this year.

“We knew whoever came out of the hat was going to be a tough draw, and the major positive is that we are at home, on our own patch, which is somewhere we have shown for the past 14 or 15 months just how strong we are.”

As a result of progressing to the third round, Barrow’s National League home match against Tranmere, set for the same day as the Kidderminster tie, will have to be rescheduled.

Full FA Trophy Third Round (to be played Saturday, February 4): Welling United v Lincoln City, Braintree Town v Dulwich Hamlet, Barrow v Kidderminster Harriers, Tranmere Rovers v Chelmsford City, Macclesfield Town v Forest Green Rovers, Wealdstone v Stockport County or Brackley Town, Nuneaton Town v York City, Worthing or Sutton United v Boreham Wood.