Barrow AFC must try and halt the “momentum” of fellow EFL new boys Harrogate Town today.

That is the view of assistant boss Rob Kelly as the Bluebirds go in search of their first win of the league season this afternoon.

The first game at Harrogate’s EnviroVent Stadium this season - Simon Weaver’s team have played early home games at Doncaster while their artificial pitch was replaced with grass - sees AFC take on their fellow promoted side.

The Yorkshire outfit have made a positive start, sitting ninth after two wins and two draws from five games, and David Dunn’s No2 believes they have reaped the benefits from the manner of their promotion.

While Barrow were voted as champions in mid-June after topping the table before March’s Covid-19 shutdown, Harrogate returned to action in July and went up through the play-offs in early August.

Kelly said: “They’re probably the one team in the league that have got genuine momentum.

“Nearly everybody else finished March time, and it’s been a bit stop-start for a few people, but with them coming up through the play-offs and the Wembley win, just a couple of weeks’ break then into it again, they’ve got that genuine momentum that people talk about.

“They’ve got a stability of staff and players who’ve been there quite a while from everything I read and see. They know what theyre doing. We want to watch them at Bradford [on Monday], where they played really well and deserved to win.

“It will be a tough game for us but it will be a tough game for them as well. We’re aware of their strengths and weaknesses but we’re also working at our strengths, and we’ll play he way we play.

“We’re trying to build something here and move forward.”

Dunn is hoping to have more injured players back today, with Matty Platt, Kgosi Ntlhe and Scott Quigley being assessed.

Experienced Kelly believes attention to detail will give the Bluebirds the best chance of claiming that long-awaited first win.

He said: “A lot of the things we do are good, but at this level, when you’ve made that step up into the League, you get punished for your mistakes. Small details - they’re the things we’ve worked at and we work at every day, first of all to be better and be good at what we’re really good at, and also eradicate things we’re not so good at.

“At this level, those individual errors cost you and teams punish you. Every game’s been tight, with a lot of draws - it will only take small things to turn them into victories but small things are really important.

“While working on that, we mustn’t give up what we’ve got, which is a good base of being hard to play against and competitive.”