Mark Cooper has backed his players to pick up a positive result against Harrogate Town on Saturday if they can maintain the standard of performance they produced last time out against Stevenage.

The Bluebirds boss has been encouraged by what he has seen in recent weeks but he knows that the players will have to be at their best to collect three points this weekend.

Town arrive at the Dunes Hotel Stadium off the back of an excellent midweek win at Bradford City and Cooper has been impressed by the brand of football Simon Weaver’s men have been playing.

“Harrogate have done really well, and Simon has done an excellent job establishing them in the EFL,” he said.

“They have had a crazy few results recently, scoring lots of goals, but conceding lots too - and then finally holding on to a lead the other night so they’ll be pleased about that.

“They’re very attack-minded and have one of the best players in the league in Jack Diamond – they’ve done amazing to be able to get him back from Sunderland.

“We have to be on our guard against them because they can be gung-ho at times, so we’ll have to be careful.

“At home we’ve done quite well recently though. We know the reasons we didn’t get three points against Stevenage – but if we get up to that level of performance then we’ll go close to getting a positive result.”

Cooper is hopeful that the enforced break handed to his side by the postponement of last Saturday’s trip to Exeter City will provide the recharge the players need ahead of a busy League Two run-in.

“There are always silver linings you can find in those situations when a game is called-off,” he explained.

“We had a couple of bumps and bruises, and Exeter had a load of injuries, so I am sure they were delighted but we had a few who were touch and go for the game too.

“So, it has given us a chance to refresh a couple of those and we’ve also been able to give an extra week’s training to Josh Gordon who is getting closer to fitness now.

Barrow are currently in 20th place in League Two, while Saturday's game will see Coopere start an eight-game touchline ban.