Mark Cooper has challenged his players to find an extra '10 per cent' to get Barrow AFC out of their winless run.

The Bluebirds’ boss takes his side to Sutton United today seeking a first league victory in nine.

Barrow need to improve their form to stop being sucked into a survival fight in League Two.

They today take on EFL new boys Sutton who sit seventh in their first season in League Two.

Experienced boss Cooper says there are certain things a struggling side can do to try and boost their fortunes.

“You’ve got to work even harder,” he said.

“The players will probably tell you they’re giving everything but if you watch yourself back, I think you can probably give another 10 per cent.

“That’s just a subconscious, mentality thing – there’s more to give. If we can all do that we’ll come out of it just fine.”

Barrow are 20th in the table but Cooper believes they can give their play-off chasing hosts a good contest at Gander Green Lane.

Matt Gray’s side have won 10 of their last 14 games in all competitions, after winning the 2020/21 National League title.

“They had a great season last year, the manager’s done a terrific job, they’ve got some good players, good camaraderie – it’ll be a tough game,” Cooper said.

“But we’ve got to concentrate on what we do, and do it really well. If we do that we can be a match for anyone, as we did the other night.”

Cooper said there was encouragement in the way Barrow performed in the first half at Forest Green on Tuesday, before going down to two second-half goals.

He added: “We were the better team in the first half, played really well and should probably have been two goals up.

“We didn’t take our chances and ran out of steam in the second half.

“It was a positive performance, certainly for the first half, so we’ve got to carry that for 75 minutes rather than 45.

“You know we’re going to tire, and we haven’t got that many players. We’ve got to find a way of making it so we’re having less running to do, and make sure we can stay in the game for longer.

“If we’re at it and can play how we can play, we can give anyone a good game.

“Of course we’re going to have work to do in January, which is a difficult window, and we’ve just got to nick a couple of results before then and get ourselves to January.”