NO-ONE is undroppable and no-one is bigger than the club is the message from Paul Cox to his Barrow AFC players.

The Bluebirds head into FA Trophy action against Matlock Town at Holker Street tomorrow on the back of successive defeats to Gateshead, Rochdale and Southport.

Those results came on the back of a 26-game unbeaten run that took Barrow into the third round of the FA Cup and as high as third in the National League.

But Cox has consigned those results to history, telling his players they cannot live on past success with nearly half the season still to go.

Realising some of the team may have had their heads turned by the potential for a move during the January transfer window, while others might have become complacent, he said: “I've said in the dressing room that some might be looking at the January transfer window and think they might get a move. Some might think they are undroppable, some might feel, at this stage now, that they are bigger than the team.

“Everyone who know me, knows that when I put a team together, it's all about the team, all about the pack.

“We'll try and rectify what is a minor dip. I don't want the little dip to have any longevity. I want it to be erased and to make sure we get back to what we are, our DNA. The players know what that is, they just have to get back to it.”

Cox is not putting the recent travails down purely to the players, and admits he needs to look at himself too when assessing what needs to be done to correct problems.

But he is confident he has it within himself to put things right and be successful with Barrow, and that the players do too.

“When I talk about the boys, I include myself in there,” he added. “It's all right as a manager when the team will go through a brick wall for you, to be a group, and then when the players aren't playing well to become a separate entity and blame just the players. We're all in this together.

“I will look at myself before any of the players. That's the way I am as a human being. That means I can make really tough decisions easily.

“I've said to the players that 'we' have got a great chance of being successful this season. The ingredients that are missing are very simple to put back into the pack or individuals, but as an individual you have to jolt yourself out of it sometimes.

“It's all right when the plaudits are being given out, when the cameras are on you, when people are saying nice things about you. But in this game it can turn ugly and horrible overnight. That's what keeps me level – I've always said that in the high times I never get too high, in the low times I never get too low.

“I knew this was happening. This is not the first time we have spoken about this, I kind of knew what was around the corner, the kind of problems we would come up against and I know instinctively the type of problems we will come up against in the next few weeks.

“I'm not going to shirk any responsibility, I'm not going be here just to appease people. I don't mind taking stick, because I will eventually get it 100 per cent right and I know I will make this club successful.

“It's a problem for me to solve, but I understood there were problems round the corner for me to solve. Life isn't that easy – 26 games unbeaten, it has to become a little bit more complicated at some point. I understand that, I won't shirk away from it, and I will make big decisions, even if that means upsetting individuals.”