Michael Jolley says he hopes to see clear signs today that his Barrow AFC side can put his new ideas into practice.

The Bluebirds host Scunthorpe in another big game in the League Two survival battle.

It is Jolley’s third match at the helm and comes against a side who sit one place and three points above 21st-placed Barrow.

Jolley says he is steadily introducing his ideas to the squad on the training ground and, while he is pleased with how players have responded, he said the proof will come on the pitch.

He said: “The Southend game [last weekend’s 1-0 defeat] was one where I learned quite a lot – It’s clarified in my mind some of the decisions that I need to take and some of the things I need to do in terms of helping the team moving forwards.

“We’ve picked ourselves up this week after the disappointing result and the boys have trained in a positive manner – they’re certainly responding to the main concepts I’m trying to work on with them.

“Every manager says, ‘the boys have trained well’ but it’s important we see some evidence [today] that they’re picking up on the work that’s being done.

“I haven’t ripped up what has been going on before, I think there was a lot of good work taking place before, but equally I’ve tried to add some of my own thoughts and my own concepts that I believe will make us harder to beat but also ideally make us more productive in our attacking play as well.

“The boys have taken it on board. When new things come in it sometimes takes a little bit of time to get completely used to it, but we shall see [today] how far down the line they are in terms of implementing what it is that I want.”

Jolley is likely to involve new loan signing Neal Eardley this afternoon as Barrow bid to land a blow on one of their closest rivals in the table.

The behind-closed-doors clash at the Progression Solicitors Stadium pits AFC against an Iron side who have lost six of their last eight games.

One of their wins in that period, though, came against the Bluebirds at Glanford Park.

Jolley said it is vital the focus is on the job in hand without placing any extra significance on games such as this.

“Lest we forget we’re not even at the halfway point in the season,” he said.

“That comes after this match. I think there’s an awful long way to go.

“We could win this match and then have a really poor run thereafter, or vice-versa. We could lose it and then win the next five.

“It’s important we just go step by step, focus on each match on its own merits, and focus on Scunthorpe, which is tough match for us but equally a tough match for them, hopefully.”

On Neil Cox’s visitors, Jolley added: “I think they had a challenging start to the season but went on a good run and picked up some good results and improved their league position.

“They seem to have had a bit of a stop-start period with Covid as well, and that’s difficult for anybody to deal with but they seem to have dealt with it rather well.

“Neil Cox is an experienced football man, it’s his home-town club, I’m sure he’ll do a really good job there, and they’ve got some dangerous attacking players.

“We’ll need to negate their threats and impose ourselves on the game.”