BARROW AFC boss Pete Wild isn’t expecting an easy ride when his side travel to face Sutton United tomorrow.

United have picked up just 18 points from their 25 league games so far this term – winning just four of those encounters.

That leaves them rooted to the foot of the table, while the Bluebirds are flying high and just one point off an automatic promotion place.

On paper, this might be seen as the closest thing you can get to an away-day banker, but that talk is not for Wild.

He knows that United are in a fight to save their League Two lives and his men will have to earn the right to play the game on their terms.

He said: “Despite where they are in the league Sutton is still always a very a tough place to go.

“They make it very physical, and they make it very tough for you.

“They want to try to make you play their game and make it a physical contest.

“We had that up here (a game at Holker Street which Barrow won 2-1 last August). They were down to 10 men early on, but they still made it a real physical contest and it will be no different at their place tomorrow.”

Sutton sacked former boss Matt Gray before Christmas and appointed ex-Cardiff City boss Steve Morison last weekend.

Tomorrow’s clash with the Bluebirds will be Morison’s first in the Sutton hot-seat and Wild knows he will be looking for an immediate response from his new charges.

“Watching Steve’s interviews and I think he’s very much going to be about what reaction he gets from his players,” Wild explained.

“He’ll be looking at how they deal with the contest physically in terms of how hard they run, tackles, headers etc.

“So I think it’s going to be one of them games where it’s down to the physicality, and when it is one of them games it is very tough to call which they will go.”

Wild knows his side will have to match their hosts for fight, but also wants them to deliver a footballing display.

He added: “It is important we match them physically, which we’ve had to do against a lot of teams this year.

“And if we do that, then it is about trying to play our game where we try to get the ball down and play.

“We know we have to work hard to earn the opportunity to get it down and play, but when we do earn that opportunity, it is about making sure that we dominate the football.

“We have managed to do that quite a lot this season, but we don’t take anything for granted.

“We need to make sure we keep going into every game focused and trying to be the best version of ourselves.”