BARROW AFC manager Pete Wild was a happy man as he spoke after his side's 4-1 win over Witton Albion at Wincham Park on Tuesday night.
It didn’t take long for Barrow to get going in this one, when Billy Waters broke through the middle of Witton’s defence to get a shot away at goal just two minutes into the game.
Four minutes later, Waters got on the scoresheet with a deft flick from a trialist’s corner to put Barrow ahead and score his first goal in a Barrow shirt.
Barrow doubled their lead in the 38th minute, when a trialist netted from 20-yard free kick, hitting the underside of the bar on the way in.
There was once again a clean sweep of changes by Pete Wild on the 60 minute mark, as a totally changed Barrow side came on to play the final half hour.
The new XI were quick to put their mark on the game, when George Ray saw his header hit the bar and bounce back out off the line.
Fresh off a hat-trick from Saturday’s friendly at Penrith, Josh Kay continued his fine pre-season form when he rifled in a rebound from the edge of the box to send Barrow 3-0 up in the 70th minute.
The home side got one back a few minutes later, when a corner was nudged in at the near post into the Barrow goal.
The Bluebirds were right back on the attack, though, as the Witton ‘keeper had to pull off a spectacular save to deny Jordan Stevens on 78 minutes. George Ray finally got his rewards when he slotted home from the subsequent corner to make it 4-1 to The Bluebirds.
The Bluebirds' boss spoke after his team's second convincing win in four days: "I was really pleased with our intensity tonight - the boys who didn't get as many minutes on Saturday got their opportunity to get their 60 minutes.
"I thought they started on the front foot, they caused a lot of problems by how they went after the football.
"Three out of the four goals came from set pieces, but that's from forcing mistakes and forcing errors that have created that set piece, and then to go and score the goal.
"I think we've seen a change in intensity over the last two games and I'm really pleased with how they've both gone."
"We're exactly where we want to be physically.
"We obviously know that the level of opposition will now rise for the last three games, and it's now time to put our structure under a different level of stress."
Wild said he was particularly pleased about his side's attacking prowess, having scored 12 goals in their last two games:
"People tell me that that was the achilles heel of the team last year, that we didn't score enough goals, but it's not just the amount of goals we score, it's where they're coming from.
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"Goals need to come from all over the park, you can't just rely on one or two areas to score all our goals, so I'm really pleased that everybody's chipping in.
"That bodes well for the season - goals breed confidence for individuals and for the team."
On whether fans can expect any more new arrivals this transfer window, Wild said:
"I think we're nearly where we need to be, we've got two for every position, and we've got three strikers in the building.
There may be a couple moving out in the coming week, so that might free up a bit of money to bring some others in where gaps might appear that I may have not seen yet, but in my opinion, we're almost there, and we should be ready to rock and roll come July 30."
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