BARROW AFC manager Pete Wild has admitted that the Bluebirds 'would love to keep' Sheffield United loanee Harrison Neal.

The 21-year-old midfielder has impressed since his loan move to South Cumbria from the Championship side in July 2022. 

In this time, Neal has played 43 league matches for Barrow, the joint-most this season, alongside captain Niall Canavanand Wild has piled the praise on the rising star.

"He has been outstanding, there are not enough words you can say about that young man.

"He came in as a young loan, his first league loan, and what he has done in that time is there for everyone to see.

"Left foot, right foot, wins headers, wins tackles, he is so mature for such a young man and he is going to have some hell of a career," He said.

The Barrow boss also confirmed that the club are interested in re-recruiting Neal after his loan deal expires, with this interest already being expressed to the Blades.

This comes after Neal brought up 50 appearances for the club in Barrow's 1-0 defeat against Grimsby Town on Tuesday night.

He said: "We would love to keep him; we have made that quite clear to him and to Sheffield United and we are going to work hard to see if we can get him to return to us.

"He has loved his time with us, but as we all know because he has done so well he is not going to be short of offers in terms of his next move but we certainly want to be in the mix to try and see if we can keep him with us.