Mark Cooper admits Josh Gordon will be a miss this weekend as the Barrow AFC boss plans for Crawley without one of his main frontmen.

Striker Gordon must serve a one-match suspension after receiving his fifth booking of the season at Carlisle last Saturday.

It will deprive the Bluebirds of the hard-working forward, with extra burden likely to fall on the shoulders of Offrande Zanzala.

Cooper is weighing up his other attacking options for the visit of the Red Devils to Holker Street.

But the manager said of Gordon’s absence: “It’s a big miss because we’re not blessed with lots of centre-forwards at the moment.

“It was a silly tackle – he didn’t need to make the tackle, he lunged off the floor, slid in…and when you do that you give the referee a decision.

“So I was disappointed he made that tackle. But – in a local derby, heat of the moment, you want players to be competitive.

“We can’t do anything about it. That’s what happens. He misses the game. It leaves us short in the striking department for sure and we have to look at how we replace Josh.”

Cooper is weighing up other selection issues as the Bluebirds aim to return to winning ways in League Two.

AFC, who are 16th in the table, are winless in six in the league, although they are unbeaten in three in all competitions and have kept three consecutive clean sheets.

This weekend they face a Crawley side who are in freefall having lost their last nine games in all competitions.

That includes a run of five defeats in six league outings for John Yems’ Sussex outfit, who are 20th in the fourth tier.

Cooper’s own challenge is to retain Barrow’s recent defensive improvement but add more goals to get back on the winning trail.

The manager said his side created gilt-edged chances in the goalless draw at Brunton Park last Saturday.

“I was really frustrated because I think it was two points thrown away,” he said.

“If you score the Josh Gordon header and the Zanzala chance, it gives Carlisle a real problem. I don’t think they had an attempt anywhere near in the first half.

“At half-time you know what’s coming, because you’ve given them the confidence to think, ‘These are never gonna score against us, so we can have a right go at them’.

“Then it’s a case of making sure we don’t get beat, and get a point, and we were defensively really solid.”