Michael Jolley says he has tried to make the most of Barrow AFC’s longer-than-normal wait to return to action.

The Bluebirds boss says he has used the extra time between games to introduce some new ideas on the training pitch.

Jolley, whose side are back in action against Grimsby next Tuesday, has also seen the additional period come in useful to integrate his new signings into the squad.

The AFC manager said it has proved valuable ahead of a hectic run of games.

“We had a couple of fairly intensive days Monday and Tuesday, which was the only chance to look at the kind of things we did,” he said.

“After that, we treated Thursday as a Monday and said it was the start of a week-long build-up to Grimsby.

“Bradford will come quickly off the back of that so it’s been important to use the time well to get everything spot on for that Grimsby game.

“I feel it’s been a good week to have a little bit of extra time. Also the weather’s been terrible at our training facility, either heavy rainfall or snow, meaning it’s been really difficult to get the kind of work in I’d ideally like to.

“Having that extra time has been really helpful, and also in terms of bedding in and integrating the new lads into the group.

“After this week we’ve got two games a week for many of the forthcoming weeks. So this hasn’t been a bad week to have a bit of extra time.”

As Jolley prepares for Grimsby he must decide whether to involve all his new faces immediately.

Neal Eardley made his debut in last weekend’s win over Scunthorpe, while Dan Bramall, Tom Davies, Ollie Banks, Jamie Devitt and Bobby Thomas have since joined.

The latter quintet arrived in the wake of a victory which gave all at the Progression Solicitors Stadium a boost in Barrow’s fight to escape trouble at the wrong end of League Two.

“Someone asked me if it was a must-win game – I don’t think it was, because there’s still 23 games left. “Naturally we need to pick up points whenever we possibly can. It was a decent performance, a solid performance if not spectacular, and I think getting that win was important for everybody’s confidence and belief that we can move forward from here.

“We can’t escape the fact we are in a fight at the bottom of League Two for the time being, and being able to grind results out, get clean sheets and pick up three points when we might not be at our fluent best is going to be important for us,” Jolley added. “Those qualities will be very important between now and the end of the season, certainly.”