BARROW AFC boss Paul Cox spoke of his pride and delight as his team set a new club record with a 2-1 victory over Solihull Moors.

Goals from Moussa Diarra and Byron Harrison earned the Bluebirds three points in a hard-fought Holker Street encounter .

AFC had looked to be cruising after going 2-0 up after 16 minutes and creating all the chances, until an Akwasi Asante goal brought Moors back into it and created a tense final 40 minutes.

However, Barrow held on and, in the process, made it 15 National League matches unbeaten – going beyond the record set by the 1984/85 team at the start of that campaign.

Joe Wojciechowicz, assistant boss of that team of 32 years ago, was in town to watch and cheer this new generation on to their own record, and Cox praised his men for setting such high standards.

“I’m very, very proud of the players for what they have achieved,” said Cox. “I spoke to the assistant manager who was here in 1984, and I congratulated him on what an amazing run that was. He said he was here to say it broken, and that was amazing of him.

“Winning football matches, drawing football matches, and not losing football matches, is very hard. These players deserve to be patted on the back for what they have achieved. It’s an amazing feat they have achieve, but we have got to be hungry for more.

“The one thing that concerned me today, was that we have gone in the dressing room after winning another football match, and it was a bit subdued. Sometimes, not losing and winning becomes a bit blasé – everyone expects you to win and it takes the edge of it and takes the excitement from winning.

“What we’ve got to do is get people back to enjoying winning football matches, because winning is hard – winning football matches is hard.

“I don’t want anyone to get blasé, or over-confident, or to put any negative on winning. It’s 1984 since this football club went on a run like this – these times don’t come around very often. We should embrace it, I want people to enjoy it, to joke, to laugh – we’ve got loads of things to look forward to. We’ve got a second-round FA Cup tie at Bristol Rovers, games at home, we’re in a play-off position, we’re competing with some massive football clubs.

“What these boys have achieved today is magnificent. We’re 32 years down the line and they really need to embrace it and be congratulated on what they have achieved.

“I’m hungry. I want more – I want to extend it.”

Cox admitted the standards the players have set themselves in going 18 matches unbeaten in the National League and FA Cup are likely behind their slight disappointment despite victory on Saturday.

But he wants them to enjoy their success, and added: “Even in training now, the standards are so high, and sometimes we can be a bit too harsh on ourselves. This is where we need people around us now to sometimes recognise what we are doing as a football club.

“If somebody had said to me at the beginning of the season that we would achieve this – the second round of the FA Cup, 18 games unbeaten, consistently winning and drawing football matches, and we’ve had some fantastic draws away from home – I would have bitten their hand of.

“I think we’re still in the infancy of where I want us to be. Our level of consistency is excellent compared to what it was when I first came, our mentality – not just as a football team, not just as a management team, but as a group with the supporters now – is such that there is a strong belief that we are competing.

“What we can’t do is be blasé about winning, and question winning. Going back to the days at the club where it was about avoiding relegation battles, that could be just around the corner. Let’s enjoy it, let’s embrace it. That’s what I told the players today in the dressing room.

“This isn’t pressure that we are going through now, this is enjoyment. Pressure is when I first got here, when we had to win our first game against Woking or we would have dropped into the bottom four – that’s pressure.

“We’ve got a good group of lads, some great people working at this football club, a great fan-base. Let’s enjoy the ride now, because I think it’s getting exciting now and I want everyone else to be excited as well.”