ALL eyes are now on Edgeley Park as Barrow AFC ended their pre-season campaign with a loss at the newly-named SO Legal Stadium.

Pete Wild's men fell to a late winner as they ended their preparations for the new League Two season with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Salford.

With just days to go until the Bluebirds travel to Stockport for the season opener, Wild has given a honest assessment of where he feels the club are at.

"Ive come away from that thinking I'm really enthused by the performance but knowing there's still work to do," he said.

"We've got to take our chances. We've had five really good opportunities to kill the game off but our defending has got to be better.

"We are 75 per cent there but I think we are really solid and robust.

"The amount of regains we won the ball back in their half was fantastic but we've got to take the chances. We can't fix everything. We could have been 3/4 in front but with football you've got to have the back door shut."

Saturday presented the chance for fans to get their first glimpse of Ben Whitfield, who has joined from Stockport County on a two year deal.

And Wild was impressed with the former AFC Bournemouth man's first outing.

"Ben's a ball carrier, he's a bum off seat man who gets you excited when he travels with the ball and I thought he showed that in abundance today," said Wild.

"He gives us excitement, a bloke who will create those chances and when we build those partnerships and start playing with the same people week in week out then we'll start seeing those chances being taken."

It was also the first appearance of pre-season from John Rooney.

Wild said: "John and Connor (Brown) both coming back from injuries so they'll be eased back into it.

"We've got some behind closed doors games and start to get minutes into them boys to get them back to where they need to bed."

Wild also revealed striker Richie Bennett is likely to be out for 8-10 weeks.

"It's a tough one to take," he said. "We know we need another centre forward in the building but we've got to get the right centre forward in and make sure he's got the traits for how we do things."