Midfielder John Rooney made it into double figures by scoring twice in Barrow AFC’s final game of the season at Gateshead last Saturday, but he insists the result meant more to him on the day.

Rooney produced two superb finishes to guide the Bluebirds to a 2-0 victory at the International Stadium that made sure of an 11th-place finish in the National League.

It was a terrific ending to Rooney’s first season at the Holker Street outfit and also the fourth time in the last five years that he has scored ten goals or more over a campaign.

While he was admittedly given time to pick his place by the Heed defence, that takes nothing away from the quality of the 28-year-old’s two strikes, both curled beautifully into the far corner.

Rooney said: “I’ve got into double figures in most of the years I’ve played, so obviously it’s always nice to get there again.

“Obviously, the three points is what was the main thing, but from a personal point of view, to score two get us a win to end the season was good as well.

“It was pretty much the same goal both times, we work on stuff and for the first one we did something we’d worked on from a corner. To be fair, we actually did it wrong.

“Me and Lewis [Hardcastle] went the wrong way, but we ended up scoring off it – it was a good job we did, as I don’t think the manager would have been happy.”

Although they eased off in the second half, the win at Gateshead rounded off what was a very satisfying final week for Barrow, who produced arguably their best performance of the campaign against Hartlepool in their last home game, on Easter Monday.

The players and staff feel they should have achieved more than a mid-table finish, but there is a feeling of optimism around the club that just wasn't there at this point last year.

Rooney said: "That's the thing the gaffer told us, we wanted to finish the season strongly, going into next year.

"If you lose your last game at the end of the season then it goes with you through the summer and everyone in the changing room is unhappy and when you finish the season you want everyone to be happy.

"We should have finished higher, to be fair, than 11th. We left a lot of points where we shouldn't have through being sloppy at times, so hopefully next season, we can have a right go and finish higher."