Barrow caretaker boss Rob Kelly was delighted to reward the club’s faithful fans with a 3-0 win against high-flying Cheltenham Town.

Over 1,300 spectators packed in to Holker Street as the Bluebirds ended their dismal five-game losing streak in style.

Scott Quigley’s penalty, Luke James’ classy chip and Harrison Biggins’ effort did the damage to condemn off-colour Cheltenham to back-to-back league defeats for the first time since February 2019.

Kelly said: “It was great having the crowd in. I thought they made a huge difference.

“They got right behind us, it was a bit how football should be really.

“It was a good pitch, but a challenging pitch. The crowd were roaring us on against a good, proper team.”

Barrow have only picked up back-to-back league wins once since their return to the Football League.

And Kelly, who was David Dunn’s number two before the latter’s departure, is desperate for this to be a turning point in their stuttering season.

He added: “It’s three points but it’s only one performance and it’s something to build on.

“Obviously the club hasn’t been at this level for almost 50 years. There are things going on in the background to move the club forward.

“Those are things that people don’t see and David was a huge part of that.

“On the pitch today obviously you can see what’s been done on the training pitch over three or four months.

“Some make the jump quicker than others, some can handle it quicker and other it takes longer and some don’t make it.

“The sensible course of action is having a season where we work hard, stabilise the club and make it a Football League club.

“It’s progressive stuff and lots of little things in the background that are important are getting better.”

Cheltenham were the overwhelming favourites before the match given the drastic difference in league positions between the two sides.

But Town were way off the pace with boss Michael Duff making a triple substitution at half-time, which proved to be in vain.

And the angry boss said: “I’m not a teapot-thrower but we were way off the standards which we set.

“We didn’t turn up and Barrow were better than us, we got what we deserved.

“I have no complaints about the result. It tells you everything that we made three subs at half-time to try and get a reaction.

“I could have substituted any three of the 10 outfield players, that’s how bad we were.

“We tried to get a reaction and it didn’t happen. We lost our discipline completely in the second half which is unlike us.

“I can go in and scream and shout but they switch off if you do that.

“The only player who comes away with any credit is (goalkeeper) Josh Griffiths, he was excellent again.

“For the first team this season we’ve been beaten by a team better than us.”