MANAGER Paul Cox can see a real hunger around his Barrow AFC squad as they prepare to face Accrington Stanley tonight.

The League Two outfit head to Holker Street to face a Bluebirds side who impressed in a 1-0 victory over Carlisle United on Saturday (7.45pm kick-off).

So far this pre-season, Barrow have won three and drawn one of their four matches – not including the triallist side which beat Furness Select 2-1 or the 4-3 behind-closed-doors defeat to Bury when the match was not played to standard pre-season rules.

With the National League season only a week-and-a-half away, Cox has been looking for his men to step up and stake a claim for a first-team place, and he has been happy with what he has seen.

“There is a nice hunger about the group at the minute,” said the Barrow manager. “There is a nice feel about them. I’ve challenged them as individuals and as a group to lay claim to a place and a lot of them have really come back at me in the right way.

“I thought there were some excellent performances on Saturday, as individuals, but as a group and as a unit, I thought that was where our strength was.”

He added: “I can see the progress. There is no easy way to get these boys conditioned and ready. That’s why we left a lot of the players on the field on Saturday – to get that extra game-time in their legs.

“The thing about the lads is that people like Andy Parry played a lot of minutes in midweek, Al-Ray Harvey played a lot of minutes in midweek, and we have to adjust to make sure that we are levelling them out now.

“It’s not necessarily that some of them looked unfit, it’s that some of them looked heavy-legged. That’s something we’ve got to have a look at and make intelligent decisions in terms of how we take them to the next level now.”

Cox is hoping to give triallist forward Aaron O’Connor another run out tonight as he weighs up whether to offer the former Newport County and Forest Green Rovers man a deal. New faces Joe Thompson – formerly of Carlisle and Tranmere – and Wes Fletcher – an ex-York and Motherwell forward – could also be involved having trained with the squad.

He also hopes winger Lindon Meikle will be recovered from the calf problem which has led to him missing the last two home matches to allow him to play as well.

Looking ahead to the match, Cox said: “I hope it’s as competitive as it was on Saturday, they ask as many questions as Carlisle did and that we’re playing as a good a team as Carlisle were. I’m sure, knowing John (Coleman, the Stanley boss) very well, that he will have them in the higher reaches of the league again.

“There are no negatives. Even with results, there are no negatives at this stage, it’s all about performance, conditioning and galvanising the unit.”

So far in pre-season, Barrow have only conceded one goal in their four regular matches – in the 1-1 draw against Airbus UK Broughton.

The defensive grouping of Danny Livesey, Shaun Beeley, Nick Wilmer-Anderton, Moussa Diarra and recent recruit Euan Murray have all impressed. Cox feels the squad are ahead of schedule in their work, through they have been focusing on closing down at the back.

“We always work on closing down,” he said. “Most of our training sessions are based on closing down the opposition, when to squeeze, when not to squeeze, and to make sure that we’re a cohesive unit.

“The boys, to say how long we’ve had them in, are ahead of schedule. I didn’t expect them to be where we are. But there is a lot to improve on – I know that sounds really weird now after looking at some of the games we have played, but I think there is an awful lot we can improve on.

“Time will tell, with additional players added to the squad, how much improvement is needed before we reach our potential.”