Failure to find a winner is Pete Wild’s only moan after Barrow home stalemate
Posted Sunday, March 12, 2023 by PA
Pete Wild’s only frustration from his Barrow side’s 0-0 draw with in-form Sutton was they they could not find a winner.
Matt Gray’s visitors are the form side in Sky Bet League Two, stretching their run without defeat to an impressive nine games after leaving Holker Street with a battling point in tough conditions.
They have lost just once in 14 matches, but Wild’s Bluebirds had the better chances to win the contest.
They have now gone five league games without losing, their best unbeaten record since they returned to the Football League.
In that run the only goal they conceded was from a penalty, so the signs are good for the play-off chasing Cumbrian club.
Wild explained: “The phrase ‘if you can’t win, don’t lose’ comes to mind.
“Sutton are the form team in the league and we looked really comfortable all afternoon.
“It’s four out of five clean sheets, we completely controlled the form team in the league but with the conditions it was hard to get the ball down and play because of a mixture of the weather and how they play.
“We switched to more of a 3-4-3 because we wanted to stop them slinging it. It meant we could get pressure on them hitting the long ball.
“What comes with that is that you don’t have as many men in the box and we found that with two second-half opportunities, which is frustrating.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t get the ball over the line, but that wasn’t for the want of trying.
“It’s a game that we probably would have lost six weeks ago. We would have made a mistake and caved in.
“We’ve gained another point, another clean sheet so there are a lot of positives to take.”
The Bluebirds dominated the chances with Jake Young twice forcing Sutton stopper Jack Rose into saves in the first half.
The visitors came closest to a winner when Sutton defender Sam Hart saw a late effort deflected wide.
Boss Gray felt the pitch killed the game as a spectacle but respected the hard work put in by the ground staff.
He said: “It’s not a surprising result given the conditions. The pitch was covered in snow yesterday. The ground staff have done brilliantly to get the game on.
“You turn up to the ground and there’s an extremely strong wind, bobbly, wet pitch.
“We knew what the game was going to be like before we kicked off. It was always going to be difficult to get anything of any real quality.
“We decided to go against the conditions, into the wind in the first half, so that we could try and make a real impact in the second half.
“I was really pleased with our first-half display. We dug in, we were resilient. We defended really well and that’s all we had to be today.
“I was pleased we got a clean sheet, I was desperate for that.
“We had a few moments on the counter-attack, as did they. There was nothing of real quality for either side to go and win the game.
“I think it would have been harsh if either side would have nicked it.”
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