Despite losing a historic victory, BARROW manager Stephen Clemence emphasised that Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw against Notts County was a “step in the right direction.”
Rory Feely’s early opener put the Bluebirds within a whisker of their first victory over the Magpies since 1966.
However, Holker Street’s last-minute anguish was guaranteed by David McGoldrick’s stoppage-time penalty.
After consecutive losses, Clemence was happy with his team’s performance despite the game’s unfortunate conclusion.
Out of a possible 18, Barrow has only gained four points.
However, Clemence stated: “It’s a positive step.” That performance, in my opinion, was excellent, and I believe that everyone should now be anticipating Saturday’s game.
As the team’s head coach, I must admit that’s the kind of performance I’m hoping for.
“Tonight, the lads were really active. What you want to see as a supporter is a group of players competing for the badge tonight, which is what I witnessed if I were on the pitch watching my team.
“I’m proud of the boys. We’ve stopped the rot if you like, and we should be looking forward to the weekend’s game now.
“I still think our final pass could be a touch better at times. We just didn’t find that decisive pass.
“I encouraged the boys to take the shackles off and play with some freedom, and if it doesn’t work out well run back quick and I thought they done that.
“The result’s a decent one, it’s fine. We’re just outside the play-offs, we’re not in a bad position.
“When I look back at the game a draw might be a fair result. Wyll Stanway made a couple of really good saves in the second-half.
“I’ve obviously watched a lot of Notts County in the last couple of seasons and there aren’t many times where you see their goalkeeper kicking it up the pitch, which shows how good our press was.
“We really got about them, won the ball high and really made them work.
“We probably needed to get that second goal. We got ahead from a set play, but we really needed that second goal, and we couldn’t manage it.”
Clemence, who hit out at the refereeing during Saturday’s defeat at Accrington Stanley, was left frustrated after Elliot Newby was denied an early penalty.
But he refused to moan and groan. He added: “How Newby’s wasn’t given after three or four minutes I do not know. I’ve seen it back and it hasn’t gone our way.
“I think it’s probably a penalty for them at the end, I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to moan about that too much.
“I’m obviously annoyed about the decision, but I’m not going to go on about it too much. I think at the weekend I was more annoyed because there was three big decisions that went against us.
