ONE OF Barrow AFC's new heroes was full of praise for the travelling fans after the Bluebirds' spectacular opening day victory.

Barrow pulled off the surprise of the weekend as they kicked off their League Two campaign with a 3-2 win over promotion favourites Stockport County at Edgeley Park.

Winger Ben Whitfield only joined Barrow from Stockport nine days before Saturday's contest- and chipped in with a goal as Barrow took a shock three-nil halftime lead.

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Speaking to the Barrow AFC official website, Whitfield said: "I'm delighted - the main thing today was the three points.

"To come here against (the team) people were saying were league favourites, and win, is massive, and it's a great start for Barrow Football Club.

"Nine days ago I was a Stockport player, so I was a bit dubious coming here about the reception I might get.

"There were boos when I came off, but that's part of football, you just have to take it on the chin - when I walked out everyone was brilliant.

"I'm just delighted that we got the three points today and scoring was just an additional part of it."

When asked about his goal, which doubled Barrow's lead to two-nil, he said: "I think it went through Joe Lewis at the right side of centre half and I just thought I've got him here, so I just took a touch past him and there was only one thing I was doing.

"I saw Gottsy (Robbie Gotts) in the middle, and I just thought, I'm going to shoot, and luckily its flown in the bottom corner."

Whitfield reserved special praise for the 991 travelling fans.

"For a thousand away fans to come on the opening day of the season, you can't ask for much more," he said.

"You could tell from minute one they were right behind the lads.

"That's a part of football and they were brilliant today, that's what gave us the start we needed.

"Three-nil at halftime against the league favourites, and to go on and win it - it couldn't get any better.

"In the second half, we knew they were going to come at us.

"They came at us, and we dealt with it very well - everyone to a man today I thought was excellent, and we thoroughly deserved the three points." 

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