BARROW AFC will be looking to replace last season’s top goal scorer Scott Quigley with a young striker who has something to prove, boss Mark Cooper has confirmed.

Talisman Quigley left Holker Street earlier this month for National League Stockport County, and his former employers are now searching the transfer market for an able replacement.

However AFC supporters may have to wait until the latter stages of the transfer window for the club to unveil a new forward as ‘bargains’ from bigger clubs become available, Cooper revealed.

He said during a club Q&A: “We need a striker, we’re looking.

“I know people are going to talk about Scott Quigley and we need a replacement, but we have got to get the right one.

“The closer it gets to the start of the season – managers at bigger clubs will be finalising their final 22 and the players that don’t get into that will be available for a loan and that’s when you get some really good bargains.

“If you’re prepared to wait you might pick a really, really good one, or do we gamble on someone who is 28, 29 – is he coming to Barrow for his final pay day?

“I would prefer a younger one that I know is desperate to become a footballer, [who] might have his faults, but I know he is going to give everything he has got and I think that is what the Barrow fans want.”

And AFC chairman Paul Hornby agrees with Cooper that the 28-year-old should be replaced with a youngster.

Quigley pointed to family reasons as he ended his two-year association with Barrow.

He scored 15 goals in League Two last season, including key winners against Oldham Athletic and Exeter City, during the club’s successful survival bid.

With their League Two opener against Stevenage just over a week away, Barrow will need to act fast if they want to have Quigley’s replacement starting at the Lamex Stadium on Saturday, August 7.

It will be Cooper’s first League Two match in charge of The Bluebirds since his appointment in May, and the 52-year-old has praised his side’s mentality ahead of the new season.

He said: “The group have been really good. The players that we have inherited have been outstanding in terms of their commitment, diligence and then you add the players we have recruited as well.”

Assistant manager Richard Dryden added: “I have got to say the lads that are here now and we have brought in have been fantastic in training. Their attitudes have been spot on, what we need – they are willing to learn and that has got to keep on progressing.”