BARROW AFC manager Paul Cox has told supporters not to put too much weight on the club’s performances in pre-season matches.

Cox’s first-team squad will play their first friendly of the summer this weekend, when they travel just over the North Wales border to play Airbus UK Broughton.

It is the first of seven matches for the Bluebirds players – coming after a squad of triallists defeated Furness Select 2-1 at Rakesmoor Lane on Saturday.

The trip to Airbus is followed by home matches against Nottingham Forest, Carlisle United and Accrington Stanley, as well as away games at Stockport County and Stalybridge Celtic and a behind-closed-doors encounter.

With the National League season now little more than a month away, the pre-season games will be an important platform for building towards the campaign, but Cox is not too worried about the results.

He said: “I’ve been in the game that long now that experience tells me you can’t read anything into the pre-season results. Players have a different mentality in pre-season. The majority are looking forward to the season itself. There is a respectfulness of the teams you play, but players are usually focused on getting fitter, getting sharper and getting the technique right and all their faculties back in order for the first game of the season.

“The games we’ve got, you could look at it and say it is quite a tough pre-season, but it’s about how we put the jigsaw puzzle together. We’ve signed some good players, so we want to play to a lot of different strengths. It’s about combining all those strengths to ultimately make the best team.

“That team will all have their own individual responsibilities and roles and they will all want to get fitter and sharper.”

Barrow are training five days a week at their new Hopwood Hall base, near Rochdale, with sessions only cancelled on midweek match-days during pre-season. As well as assessing triallists still with the squad – with a goalkeeper, a centre-half and two front men the main targets – Cox is also ensuring those already signed on are living up to expectations. New striker Ross Hannah is among those said to have returned to training in top condition, with Cox looking at many factors as he builds towards picking his team for the start of the season.

He added: “There are a lot of footballers out there who are good footballers and that’s it, but there’s a lot more that goes in to being an excellent footballer.

“We will look over pre-season and see what it brings up. There is a little bit of movement now – I think some people are starting to be realistic in terms of their wages. From the first day of pre-season, all the players will be scrutinised to make sure that fitness levels are good, weight, body-fat and so on.

“Just because we have signed some good players, it doesn’t mean that anybody is guaranteed a place.”

The 2016/17 National League fixtures will be released tomorrow at 1pm. See www.nwemail.co.uk to find out Barrow’s schedule.