CAPTAIN courageous Danny Livesey is ready to lead by example and play through the pain barrier once again for Barrow AFC.

A battle-hardened central defensive veteran of nearly 300 Football league games for Carlisle United, Livesey is no stranger to bumps and bruises.

So the combined effects of a badly bruised bone in his left knee, suffered in pre-season, and five stitches to his nose picked up in a collision against Bromley last Saturday, are unlikely to keep him away from the action.

Although the knee injury has kept him on the sidelines at times this season, both Livesey and his manager Paul Cox fully expect the
31-year-old from Salford to be leading out the Bluebirds against Boreham Wood tomorrow.

"It's been a tough time for me being in and out of the team and playing through the pain, but I think I'm getting back to normal now," said Livesey.

"I'm okay training, the only thing I can't do in training really is strike the ball too hard with my left foot because of the pain.

"All you can do with deep bone bruising is put the knee in ice after training and I've been using a titantic amount of ice in recent weeks!"

"I'm starting to feel happy with my own form again," added Livesey, who was this week shortlisted for the National League player of the year prize in the 2016 MBNA Northwest Football Awards.

"Danny has trained all week, he is having his stitches out and I’m sure he will be 100 per cent right for Saturday," added Cox.

“He is a great lad and brings a great mentality to our eleven and that’s why he got the armband."

Now the centre-half has set his sights on helping Barrow preserve their unbeaten home record and get back to winning ways at the expense of Boreham Wood.

"We need the fans to get behind us and encourage them to come down, and the only way to do that is to play winning football," he said.

"Its important we get our home form right. We've started well at home and and the lads are confident we can get the three points on Saturday and keep up the good run.

"All the games are tough in this league as I've said before and I imagine Saturday will be no different - it all depends on who turns up on the day in this league.

"It's up to us to get it right on the day and get the result.

"It's disappointing that we didn't get the three points on Saturday (referring to the 1-1 draw against Bromley) when we were leading but there is nothing you can do when it's a genuine mistake.

"We've had a steady start to the season and we got a point. We didn't get beat so it keeps the unbeaten run going."