Barrow boss Paul Cox slams players after second-half FA Trophy capitulation at Tranmere

BARROW boss Paul Cox slammed his players following Saturday’s heavy FA Trophy defeat at Tranmere Rovers and said he would having words after his side went “missing”.

The Bluebirds took the lead in the Trophy quarter-final at Prenton Park thanks to Jordan Williams’ first-half effort.

However, it was all downhill from then on as Rovers levelled through Michael Ihiekwe before Cole Stockton’s second half hat-trick and Andy Mangan’s free-kick put paid to Barrow’s Wembley dreams.

Cox’s men are eighth in the National League and five points adrift of the play-off places after an inconsistent recent run of results.

The second-half capitulation on the Wirral left Cox asking questions of his squad ahead of Tuesday night’s tricky trip to relegation threatened Guiseley.

“That sense of pride, that sense of who we are, was missing for 45 minutes,” Cox told the North-West Evening Mail.

“There’s got to be words said to the players. The gloves are off now. I’m going to speak to the chairman about a few things.

“If you look at all the goals, we were sloppy. People talk about us being a big strong side. Earlier in the season some people moaned about us being big, strong and direct.

“I’d love us to be big, strong and direct now and to be anywhere near the side that went on that unbeaten run and looked at one stage like we could be champions.

“If we play like that, I’m happy we’ve already got 54 points because we’ve just avoided relegation. We need to get back to our old DNA because if I’m honest, right now we’re as far away from it as possible. I want to see us finish the season in the manner in which we started it.”