PETE Wild revealed a dose of the hairdryer treatment kicked Barrow into gear to pick up back-to-back wins with victory at Newport County.

The Bluebirds wasted chances in the first half and put their noses in front through goal machine Josh Gordon on the stroke of half time.

Barrow’s golden boy doubled the lead from the spot to take his tally for the season to seven.

“It wasn’t our greatest performance,” admitted Wild. 

“In the first half I thought that was the worst we’ve played. We were sloppy and poor with the football. 

“I thought we sat off and let them come after us. Let’s have it right we were very lucky to go in 1-0 up at half-time. I think Newport could feel a bit aggrieved not to go in ahead.

“I had a bit of a pop at half time to say ‘that’s not good enough, that’s not us’.

“Second half we came out and got on the front foot and started to impose ourselves better on the game.

“That meant our back four could get higher up the pitch and we looked better. 

“I wouldn’t say it was a classic Barrow display but we got the two goals and defended everything that’s come our way well.

“We’ve come away with the victory but I would suggest that for large parts of the first half Newport could be frustrated they didn’t score.”

Wild heaped praise on star man Gordon for his “sensible” first goal, which changed the landscape of the game going into the interval.

And the former Oldham boss stressed his side will have ups and downs in their performances due to the high-intensity style to their play.

“Josh has been great and again the goal comes from playing sensibly,” reflected Wild. 

“We try and bring too many things down under pressure instead of helping it on, he helps it on and we go in 1-0 at half time.

"If you play sensibly that’s what you get instead of trying to mess about with the football.

“In the second half you look at the penalty Robbie Gotts gets, that’s the penalty we should have had at Northampton the other week, it’s exactly the same thing. Luckily this time we get the penalty and it’s a really good finish from Josh.

“It’s another two goals to add to his tally.

“The goal changed the team talk a lot. You go from thinking ‘this could be a lot better and Newport can come out and impose themselves’ to ‘right they have to get after us now and try to dictate the game, hopefully when they do that we can pick them off’. 

“Because this team puts so much energy into each display you will see peaks and troughs in terms of physical outputs because of how hard they work.”

Attention now turns to a top-of-the-table clash between second-placed Barrow and league leaders Leyton Orient.

But Wild added: “It’s only the 10th game of the season. Theoretically it’s a top of the table clash but we just need to keep putting points on the board.”