PRE-SEASON will take a step up for Paul Cox and his Barrow AFC players as they take on a Nottingham Forest XI at Holker Street tomorrow.

The Bluebirds boss has fielded a large number of triallists in the matches against Airbus UK Broughton and Stockport County in the past week.

But that will change tomorrow, as he wants his contracted players to start building up more and more game time to prepare them for the season ahead (3pm kick-off).

It will be the first chance for most AFC fans to see Barrow’s new signings in action, with Moussa Diarra, Liam Hughes and Richie Bennett among those set to feature.

While there will be a sprinkling of triallists as Cox looks to add the final numbers to his National league squad, the Forest match – against a mostly under-21s side, with a handful of first-team squad members – will be an early indication of the abilities and fitness of those in it for the long haul.

“The main thing going forward is that I want my first-team players, the people who are contracted to this club, to start to get some minutes under their belts,” Cox said.

“For that to happen, we’ve got to start to strip down the triallists now and really concentrate on the group we have got. Now we’ve got that base of the first 45 minutes, some have had 70, some even 90, it’s a proactiveness now to get them conditioned to a full 90 minutes. We will be building into that step by step.

“There will be some triallists, but on Tuesday there were 22 players again and there won’t be 22 players on Saturday.

“We’ve got to be thoughtful of people like Elliot Newby, who didn’t get any minutes at Stockport on Tuesday because we had to look at one or two. It’s important now that the contracted players do get minutes on the pitch.”

He added: “I know I sound like a scratched record, but it’s a game I want to learn something from. I want to learn about my players, I want the whole team, the whole squad to be tested.

“I think as long as we continue learning, then I will be happy. I would rather all the problems, all the mistakes, be ironed out in this period of pre-season, rather than get to the early stages of the season and be chasing our tails.

“I anticipate it will be a fast-paced game, like it was on Tuesday, which is why we have picked these games. I expect them to test us physically, mentally, our shape when we start to get tired, our decision-making – all theses things don’t happen unless we play a proper game.

“I don’t like this testimonial style and the speed of these games if they are too slow. We are not going to learn anything about ourselves – I want us to be tested, I want everyone from the goalkeeper to the centre forward to be tested.

“It’s a test of our fitness, our sharpness and I have deliberately gone for a hard pre-season against teams I know we’re not going to get our own way against. That’s deliberate.

“Even if you look at the likes of Stalybridge, Airbus, Stockport, they all give us a real good test. It’s all positive.”

Cox is hopeful a decent number of Barrow supporters will show up for tomorrow’s game, both to take in the in-field action and to meet the new signings afterwards.

He is keen to build the rapport between fans and players – having already held a meet and greet session in Barrow town centre two weeks ago – and hopes that process can continue this weekend.

“Some of the work that is done behind the scenes in creating a bond between the players and the supporters has been excellent – the meeting at Costa etc – and we want as many people as can to come down and have a look at us, hang around and meet the players and be galvanised as a group,” he said.