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" I thought we worked extremely hard, we were a little bit short attack-wise with Matt Henney being at a wedding and Chris Thompson's girlfriend was taken into hospital at 3'o'clock so he wasn't available. So we were a little bit short, we weren't going to risk Kyle (Wilson) from the start, we are just going to feed him in gradually over the next few games. So were a little bit short attack-wise but I thought that once we got going, once we got the wind after about fifteen minutes I thought they did very well. I thought they passed it well, I thought it was a very even first-half, a very even first-half.
" It was always going to be difficult in the second-half because they put an entirely new eleven players on and obviously that much fresher and sharper. We've had to change it to give other lads on the bench a bit of a run and we've had young Josh Gray, a local lad who has done some training and because he has done some training with us we have given him some time on the pitch. Because we were a little short bit of numbers we've had to bring in two lads from Manchester who are basically not really up to this standard of football but because we've brought them through we have given them a bit of a run-out.
" I thought that as an exercise we worked really hard. What a perfect opportunity, two local lads have played today, Chris Pritchard and Josh Gray, they may not be the best players in Barrow but they have shown some sort of commitment to come to pre-season training. They have had their reward today by coming on the pitch in front of a very good crowd. If that's what happens that's what happens but I am disappointed because there have got to be some players out there.
" They are not going to walk into the team but they can train with the players, they can improve by doing a bit of training and they can get some play-time in pre-season friendlies. That's the only time of the year that you can really give those sort of players a chance, then if they play well in the pre-season friendlies and we like the look of them things change.
" I've always had to do travelling over an hour to training, I don't think it is a couple of hours, it's about an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and ten minutes to training. Most players in semi-pro football do an hour's travelling to training, if you don't train then you can't play at this standard of football. Within the season if they were good enough then they wouldn't be coming down twice a week, they would be coming down once a week. "
" If they are not out there to come though and give it a go then we've got to look elsewhere. It's a shame because there is an opportunity this season, the main opportunity is pre-season because they can train with us. The proof in the pudding is the two lads who have played today in Chris Pritchard and Josh Gray.
" I thought that Andy Bond and Chris Butler had great games, the difficulty was that Lee Hoolickin, Lee Woodyatt and Chris Thompson missed the first three sessions of training. It took Lee Hoolickin certainly about 20 minutes to get into the game, once he got into the game he started to show that he is a decent sort of player but he did find it hard in the first 15 or 20 minutes. He wasn't up to the pace but that is only his third session this season.
" I thought that Lee Woodyatt showed loads of energy and showed that he is versatile, he got a great tackle in to stop a goal in the first-half so he did well. Steve McNulty is strong but we are not full-time, we're striving for fitness but I thought they did themselves good justice. Peter Thomson's girlfriend has had a problem and he has missed two training sessions this week so Peter has not trained a lot over pre-season, he'll get better, he has lasted 90 minutes.
" It is about getting people fit and match-fit but I thought, they are a League One side now, that in the first-half after the first 15 minutes that when we got into the game, I thought they didn't look any better than us. Every season you start at the club, if you have a poor start then you are under pressure. We've got Clitheroe on Tuesday so we'll get just get out there and we'll have a few more attacking options on Tuesday, it will be a bit better that way.
" There is going to be competition for places, you can see that, there are going to be 14 or 15 players who all could play in the side. I'm not disappointed at all with them, I thought that fitness levels were good and considering that they put a whole fresh new team on in the second-half, you just have to think that that is difficult for us isn't it. "