Scott Quigley’s height gives him the appearance of a target man, but it was the way manager Ian Evatt prefers to keep the ball on the floor that helped persuade the striker to sign for Barrow AFC this summer.

Quigley became the first player to sign a three-year contract with the Bluebirds since Evatt took charge just over a year ago, showing the faith his new boss has in the former Blackpool man to be a success at Holker Street.

It’s been a promising start to pre-season for the 26-year-old, as he quickly got his first goal out of the way, nodding in from close range during last Saturday’s opening friendly against Blackburn.

He also played in the first half of Tuesday’s disappointing 2-1 defeat against Furness Select, in which AFC didn’t display the sort of composure or quality on the ball that is demanded of them.

Quigley said: “I think the manager himself said that to get in these different sorts of players, you have to offer them contracts that suit them.

“For me, I didn’t think about dropping down [to the National League] - I could have stayed in the Football League from what I got offered.

“I believe in what the gaffer has said because he plays football the right way and the teams that maybe wanted me in the Football League were, for me, more direct in how they play.

“We play football here and this is what I want to be a part of and he thinks that I’m going to be a part of something special, and I think all the lads believe in what he says.”

With their packed pre-season schedule, Barrow have a quick chance to put their loss, and lacklustre performance, against Furness Select behind them when fellow Cumbrians Workington make the trip down to Holker Street.

Quigley is confident that the Bluebirds will get any sloppiness out of their game by the time the serious business starts against Wrexham on August 3.

He said: “I thought we did really well against Blackburn on Saturday and we’ve gone from that to maybe being a bit complacent on Tuesday, but that will all be rubbed out by the time we go to Wrexham.

“The gaffer won’t take no sloppy displays of anything like that and he told us of what he though of our performance and it wasn’t nice to hear, so it’s up to us now to pull our fingers out.

“Fair play to them, it was their cup final so they came here and had a go and while I thought we were a bit complacent, we’d only been together for seven days and trained less than that.

“Congratulations to them for how they played, but for us it’s got to be a lot better.”