WINNING trophies and bringing success to Holker Street are top of agenda for Barrow AFC manager Paul Cox as the season reaches crunch-time.

The Bluebirds are in the last eight of the FA Trophy after last weekend's 1-0 victory over Kidderminster Harriers, and are just three points off the National League play-off places, with games in hand on most of their rivals.

The chance of bringing silverware to Barrow is driving Cox and his players on, with both competitions offering realistic prospects of success.

Cox knows his team are being talked about as potential FA Trophy winners and proper promotion contenders, and he wants the players to lives up to those expectations and for the club to rally round.

“Success is what we’re hungry for – it’s what I came to this club to try and create,” said Cox, who takes his team to sixth-placed Aldershot this afternoon, knowing victory will lift them at least once place up the table. “We have created a belief that we belong.

“When trophies and promotion are being discussed, and when everyone talks about who could be in contention, we are mentioned.

“We’ve come a massive way, and I sometimes have to pinch myself when I think about what we have created in the time we have been here. But we haven’t achieved anything yet, and I want the boys to have that inner drive to finish on a positive note.

“By that, I mean let’s have a real good go. We’ve just come out of the FA Cup in the third round, we’re still in a lovely place in the league, a position from where we can attack, and we’re in quarter-final of the FA Trophy.

“If good decisions are made now, then we can finish this season and have a successful one.”

Cox is aware that his side are not always seen as producing the most flowing, easy-on-the-eye football, but that is not something that overly concerns him.

He is more bothered with results after 90 minutes of play and with the rewards those positive outcomes bring.

“This game is all about winning, nothing else,” said Cox, who claimed the National League title with Mansfield Town in 2012/13. “I hear some of the purists talking about entertainment and styles of play, but this game is all about winning trophies.

“Sir Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley, they’re up there because they won trophies, their teams won trophies. I’m hungry, I know the players are hungry, the football club is, to win trophies.

“We’re mentioned in those names of teams who can now, and we have earned the right to be in that pack. Now we’ve got to make sure that come the end of March and April that people are talking about us in those same ways when they mention teams who could be promoted and who could win the cup.”

For that to be the case, Cox wants to see his players on the front foot and pushing for results in key fixtures that lie ahead.

Today's trip to the Shots is followed by a match at ninth-placed Macclesfield Town on Wednesday, with an FA Trophy quarter-final at Tranmere Rovers coming up at the end of the month.

“I just want us to be positive – I want the boys to show how dynamic we can play and how positive we can be," said the Barrow boss. "We've made great strides, and I always keep saying this, but it is very easy to forget. I want us to finish the season like we played in the first half.

“I think we can affect it if we are positive and we look to play on the front foot, embracing the games coming up. I don't want us to fear any of the games and get embroiled in a tension over what we are trying to compete for.

“When I first came to the club, we wanted to compete with the big boys in this league. Now we are doing it, doing it consistently, I don't want it to become a chore or to be like a weight tied round our neck.

“I want us to go an embrace and enjoy the end of the season. We're always better when we do that, we're always best when we look at it just as a football match, and a football match we can win if we're positive.

“That's the way this group reacts – they enjoy the challenge rather than the challenge becoming a chore."

Barrow's National League trip to Chester has been rearranged for Tuesday, March 28. It was originally scheduled for Saturday, February 25, when the Tranmere FA Trophy tie will now be played.

The Bluebirds will host Rochdale in the quarter-finals of the Lancashire Trophy on Tuesday, February 21 (7.45pm kick-off).