BUILDING a bigger squad of contracted players is one of Paul Cox’s key requirements if Barrow AFC are to build on this season’s progress.

The AFC manager – whose side end their campaign at home to Dover today (12.15pm kick-off) – is already weighing up his options regarding new recruits and retaining current squad members, with the view to bolstering the ranks for the 2017/18 season.

With the Bluebirds looking certain to be spending next season pushing for promotion from the National League – having just missed out on the play-offs this time around – Cox has highlighted areas where improvement is needed.

One of them is with the depth of talent signed on at Holker Street – with Barrow having become over-reliant on loan players at several times this season.

AFC presently have six loan players in their squad – a seventh, Shaun Tuton, saw his spell effectively ended by injury earlier this month – but there is a limit of five on how many can be included in any match-day squad.

Twice in March, Cox was only able to name four substitutes on the bench, as injuries and suspensions cut his small core squad numbers down, and he was maxed-out with his loan allowance.

In addition to the loanees, Barrow have just 18 contracted players. However, within that number, Andy Parry, Dan Cockerline and Joel Dixon have been out long-term with knee problems, Byron Harrison only returned on Easter Monday from an ankle issue, Harry Panayiotou has been loaned to Salford City and Elliot Newby recently came back from a spell at Altrincham.

Those factors mean Cox has not had enough of his own players to fill a 16-man squad for some time, and he wants to address that next term.

Looking at the squad sizes of promotion rivals Lincoln City, Forest Green Rovers and Tranmere Rovers, he sees the blueprint for success and hopes to copy it with AFC.

“If you look at the clubs who are vying for the championship or promotion, sometimes you have to look and learn from them,” said Cox, who does already have at least eight players contracted for next season on deals signed last summer.

“The majority of their squads are made up of contracted players.

“Sometimes you have to evolve, you have to have people sat in the stands – and that is just key to having a good camp. That’s not having a go at the loan players – our loan players have come in and worked extremely hard – but there is nothing better than having a squad of players all singing from the same hymn-sheet, all knowing the way you play and all of them with an understanding that if you don’t play well, you go and sit in the stand or on the bench for two or three games.

“If you look at our depth of quality, especially coming round the bend, that’s one thing I think we can improve on.

“That’s not me complaining – I understand the learning curve of this football club.

“I know we are building and we need to make sure that myself, Paul (Casson, the AFC owner), the board, the players, the supporters, are all singing from the same hymn-sheet in terms of timescales and the business plan to make us successful.”