THE REALLY WILD SHOW

Manager Pete determined to keep Bluebirds flying high v

BARROW LEYTON ORIENT League Two: 3pm

BY

@Mikewaltersmgm

PETE WILD is such a good fit for Barrow, where nuclear submarines are still made in the shipyard, that he should go out for dinner in torpedo and bow tie.

The Bluebirds manager (below) is entitled to dine out on an FA Cup giant-killing in 2019, when he was caretaker at skint Oldham and they ambushed Premier League Fulham.

Now he has resurfaced in the EFL, like a submarine docking in port, at Holker Street – and wants to make one of English football’s outposts a “fortress”.

Today’s top-of-the-table shootout with unbeaten League Two leaders Leyton Orient will provide Wild with an early-season marker of his side’s progress.

He said: “The mood is buoyant, and so it should be but we’re going toe-to-toe with a team who are going to be at the right end of the table, where we want to be, at the end of the season.

“Orient have spent well, their manager Richie Wellens knows what it takes to get out of this division and it’s a real good test for us.

“If we want to be where we want to be, these are the teams we need to challenge ourselves against.

“We’ve put some miles into the players’ legs this week, worked hard – tactically and technically – and we’re as wellprepared as we could be.

“The fans will have their part to play. I want to make this place a fortress and for visiting teams to come here thinking, ‘Oh God, it’s Barrow away.’

“We’ve had a couple of false dawns since coming back into the league, but I sense we are ready to push on and this football club has the potential to be anything.

“I can identify with the people here. It’s a bit like Oldham, an honest, working-class town but I didn’t come here to be little old Barrow, fighting to survive at the bottom of the league. I want us to turn heads and take on the big boys.”

Orient boss Wellens admits he did not expect a 600-mile round trip to the Furness peninsula to be a top-two shootout after nine games.

He said: “If you told us both we would be fighting it out where we are after such brilliant starts, both clubs probably wouldn’t have believed you. It’s the biggest

test for both sides so far.”