ADAM Murray was delighted his Barrow side answered the call to be more ruthless as they picked up their first league win of the season.
The Bluebirds saw off Sutton United 3-0 thanks to goals from captain MJ Williams, Isaac Marriott and Ben Whitfield at Holker Street.
It ended Murray’s painful start to life as Barrow boss as the Cumbrian club finally got on the board.
“My message to the boys at half time was ‘we aren’t going to sit back and go into protection mode’ because that’s not me,” reflected Murray.
“I’d rather us lose the game being us and trying to win it because I think trying to be safe like that always gets punished.
“The lads worked their socks off and got their rewards in the second half.
“The thing we did well was we punished the opponents, which made all the difference. I’m happy for the goal scorers but I’m over the moon for the team and the clean sheet.
“The big thing was we punished them. We’ve had more chances in other games, but we brought quality and we were ruthless in the moments that we had to be.
“There were some big performances out there.”
Barrow had struggled in front of goal and scored just five goals, and conceded nine, in their opening five league outings.
Murray called out his side’s “soft underbelly” and urged them to be more clinical in the final third.
And he was delighted with how his side saw out the game at 2-0 up, when Sutton threatened to get back in the contest.
Murray added: “The facts tell you that we’re not scoring enough goals. The facts also tell you that to go and get goal scorers you have to have big money.
“Last season I had it with David Davis, he’d never been a goalscorer, but we put him up top and he did a job for us.
“The thing with Isaac, he’s got so much energy, he wants to break into the box and get forward and you have to allow people like that who don’t want to be disciplined to go out there and run. He’s willing to get into the box and make things happen.
“We’ve been big and strong in a lot of moments, but I feel like we’ve been naive as well.
“It got a bit messy towards the end, but we wanted it like that. We showed a lot of character.
“They were throwing everything at us, so we wanted it to be a bit stop start and credit to the players, they managed the game well.
“You saw a real together group and the end and I’m chuffed for them. I hope it gives the players the impetus they needed.”
Barrow are back in action when they travel to Worthing next weekend.
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