BARROW AFC manager Paul Cox believes his Barrow AFC team gained a lot from Tuesday's 1-0 pre-season win at Stockport.

Ross Hannah scored the only goal of the game, but Cox was more concerned with ensuring the team continues to develop and improve their fitness.

He saw that in a game which featured all his contracted players in the squad, as well as a number of triallists, and feels the team and heading in the right direction.

“I thought it was excellent,” he said of the Edgeley Park encounter. “The whole game situation with Stockport was excellent. It was what I would call a competitive game, we got loads out of it, there were a lot of questions asked of us by what I would describe as a very capable Stockport side who I think are going to be very successful this year in Conference North.

“There were loads of things we can improve on, but more than anything there were a load of positives – a clean sheet, we won the game and our condition has improved.

“The whole night, even if the result hadn't been a positive, was still positive. It was the kind of experience that I wanted the lads to have at this stage to get something out of it.

“I see so many pre-season games where people are playing testimonial-style football and not getting any conditioning out of it. They're not worth it – I would rather have lost than go somewhere, win 7-1 and learn nothing about my players.

“There were a lot positives for me, massive amounts of positives for the players, because they were worked really hard on the Monday. These boys have been working extremely hard and our boys probably looked a little bit leggy and I think that was something to do with how hard the boys have been working.

“We could have given them an easy day on Monday, but we worked them really hard because it is all about conditioning at this stage. I would rather lose a game and get something out of it shape-wise, conditioning-wise and with the mentality than be safe and just look at it as getting an easy result.

“The result is only half the story. It's partly important because the game is all about winning, but the other angle is that I had to learn something about the players and I learned a lot. Equally important, they learned a lot about themselves.

The Stockport match also saw close-season signings Paul Turnbull, Moussa Diarra and Lindon Meikle make their first appearances in Barrow shirts.

All three missed the game at Airbus UK Broughton with slight strains that the AFC management team did not want to risk on the Welsh Premier League side's 3G pitch.

But each came through the County game with no issue, and Cox said: “They have all done well. Moussa got through 90 minutes, which I was over the moon about, Bully got through 75 minutes. Lindon was the one who was a little bit later into pre-season and he's catching up a little bit with his overall general fitness, but he got a good 25 minutes at the end and was very lively.

“I'm really chuffed for all three of them, because in game-time they were probably behind one or two, but some of the performances were really good.”