PAUL Cox is ready to see what his Barrow AFC team are all about as they face two of the National League's big guns in quick succession over the next four days.

The fourth-placed Bluebirds travel to second-placed Forest Green Rovers tomorrow and host third-placed Macclesfield Town on Tuesday night in a pair of games which will provide a strong idea of their credentials.

AFC go into the matches on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run, and with the club being talked about in a positive light for their on-pitch advancement this term.

Cox is still looking for improvement from his team, and hopes to see that over the coming days, realising that top-of-the-table encounters are a key yardstick for progress.

“These games are what it's all about for me,” said Cox, who watched Macclesfield beat Wrexham 3-0 in midweek to move above Barrow into third spot.

“It's nice being in the position we are. We want to improve, we want to do better, but it's nice to be perceived as we are being, not just within Barrow but outside of Barrow as well.

“We've still got to earn the right to maintain the status of where we are, but we don't want to do just that, we want to progress.

“Coming up to these games, they are going to be really testing, and that's what it is all about.

“There's a good feeling, there's a positive mind-set in the camp. There is an understanding and respectfulness of everyone around us. We're hungry, I've got a hungry group who want to improve, who want to get better.

“We want to be playing in these games more often.”

While recognising the scale of the games coming up, Cox hopes his players can treat them the same as they would any other match – with a respect for their opponents but also a belief in their own right to be there.

That was the case when they knocked Lincoln City from the summit with a 2-1 success a fortnight ago, and the Barrow boss wants a repeat tomorrow.

“We can talk about positions in the league, and I was at Macclesfield against Wrexham and saw an impressive Macclesfield performance,” he said.

“But I want these players to believe in themselves an not look at league tables or league status. I want them to have a healthy respect for everybody from top to bottom.

“We want to go an impose ourselves and try to impose our game on anyone we play. That's the main thing.

“I've always said I don't look at where people are positioned at the minute. These two teams we are playing, we've got to treat it the same as if they were both at the bottom. We have to believe in ourselves, have a respect for the league we are in and what we are all about.”

Cox is boosted tomorrow by the availability of both Shaun Beeley and Alex-Ray Harvey.

Beeley played more than an hour in midweek in a behind-closed-doors match at Fleetwood – a 3-1 defeat in which Euan Murray scored the AFC goal – after more than a month out with a groin issue.

Harvey missed last week's 2-0 defeat of York City with a knee issue, but he has trained well this week – as have Liam Hughes and Richie Bennett, who both left the field against York with slight knocks.

Looking back at the midweek match with Fleetwood, when the likes of Elliot Newby and Andy Coughlin also featured, Cox added: “It was a really good run-out. It was a half-and-half split of player who hadn't had a game or were returning from injury and triallists.

“It was a good run-out against a very strong Fleetwood side, and we got something out of it, which was a positive.

“Players got some good minutes under their belts. Players like Shaun Beeley got 60 or 65 minutes, which was excellent.”