Mark Cooper has urged his players to keep on putting in the hard yards and demonstrating their strong team spirit as they return to league action at Oldham Athletic this weekend.
The Bluebirds boss has been delighted with the character and togetherness his squad has shown in the opening month of the campaign, something further illustrated as they twice came from behind to take a point in the Papa John’s Trophy at Accrington on Tuesday.
Now Cooper’s focus is on engineering Barrow’s first away victory of the new season and he’s backing the players to collect it on Saturday if they continue to do the ugly side well.
“The first thing you have to do is win you personal battles and make sure the opposition know they’re in a game,” Cooper told us.
“You have to be tough, be rugged and do all the horrible bits first before you even start thinking about playing your football.
“If we do that on Saturday then hopefully, we will come out on the right side of the result.”
Barrow will come up against a Latics outfit who lost their opening four League Two games of the season before coming from behind in remarkable fashion to win at Sutton last Saturday.
Keith Curle’s men backed up that first league triumph with a solid three points in the opening group game of their Papa John’s Trophy campaign in midweek to help lift the mood around Boundary Park.
“They got a good win and their first in the league in a dramatic manner last weekend which will have buoyed them, and then they enjoyed a positive result on Tuesday so they will be in good spirits.
“They have some good individual players who can turn games with a moment of quality – people like Nicky Adams who has been a great pro and has fantastic ability so he’s one of those to be aware of.
“There are good professionals across their squad so we have to give them the respect they deserve, work hard and see what we can do off the back of that.
“It’s always a good atmosphere at Oldham, it’s one of those grounds, and hopefully we will have a big following again, so it’s a game we’re really looking forward to.”
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