Barrow AFC manger David Dunn is looking forward to working again with Matt Platt, a player who he knows very well from the formative stages of his career.

Platt signed for the Bluebirds permanently from Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday following an extremely successful loan spell last season in which his consistently solid performances at the back played a big part in the team winning promotion from the National League.

The 22-year-old also had a spell at Holker Street in 2017, a time when Dunn was coaching Blackburn’s under-23 side and had a hand in the way the young centre-back developed as a footballer.

Platt’s performances in helping AFC towards their first EFL campaign in 48 years meant there was plenty of demand for his services and Dunn is delighted to have gotten his signing over the line.

Dunn said: “Obviously, I’ve known him for a number of years through coaching him at Blackburn under-23s and we had a really good time together in them three years.

“Platty was an outstanding young prospect, and Lewis Hardcastle was obviously in there as well, so I’m delighted that we’ve brought Platty in.

“It’s taken a little while, but things had to be right for everyone. I’m absolutely made up that we’ve managed to fight off the other interest there was in him and get the deal done.”

One of the features of Platt’s play during his second loan with Barrow was the way he seemed to have a mature head on young shoulders and appeared unflappable when the defence was put under pressure.

That composure with and without the ball is something that will be key if he is to successfully make the step up to League Two, for what will be his first season of playing senior football at such a level.

Dunn said: “I’m not going on about what I’ve done before, but when I coached at Blackburn, myself and Damien Johnson tried to develop players mentally because we knew that was the last little bit before they’d be ready for first-team football.

“We tried to give them as much info and as much knowledge about that as we could.

“Platty has obviously had a couple of loans and last year at Barrow he did remarkably well.

“He needs to carry that on now, let’s be honest, he needs to go again. He can’t just have one good season, he needs to build on that really good season, churn out some really good performances and help get them clean sheets for us because they’re going to be really important.”