RETURNING striker Ashley Grimes plans to stick around in the Barrow AFC side ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Woking after his goalscoring return.

Grimes is back in the AFC first-team fold after three months without a start and a spell on the sidelines with a pelvis injury.

He returned in style with the winning goal at Welling United last weekend to help the Bluebirds to a 2-1 victory – their first National League success in five outings – and he hopes to carry that form forward.

“It has been a real stop-start season with injuries and not being selected,” said Grimes, who made his first appearance in two months when coming off the bench in the FA Trophy defeat at FC Halifax Town last week.

“It’s been tough, but I want to help the team win some games now and every footballer just wants to play football.

“I feel I can score more goals and I can help the team in other ways – with assists and the like. Whether I play up front or in midfield – and I’ve played in midfield a lot during my career – there are no problems, the team winning is more important than anything.

“We have set ourselves some targets. The first one from the weekend was three points – we have achieved that and hopefully we can take that into this weekend and the upcoming games.”

Grimes, a former Millwall, Rochdale and Walsall forward, has been impressed with the impact made by new boss Paul Cox since he took over in November.

While fitness issues prevented him from featuring in any of Cox’s sides before last week, he has noticed a change on the training ground and feels that can be carried forward into upcoming matches.

“I think Paul has definitely made an impact,” said the experienced 29-year-old former Manchester City trainee.

“I’ve not really played for him with the injuries. Welling was my first start, so I’ve not had much chance to work up close with him.

“But you could see that the effort of the lads and the intensity in training has gone up. Hopefully that can continue and we can turn that into results.”

Cox himself is happy with the way Grimes has applied himself over the past few weeks, after watching him battle back to fitness following the pelvis injury.

He hopes to see more strong displays from the Mancunian, and said: “He’s not been involved for a long period of time and we gave him an opportunity to show what he can do.

“I thought there were periods of the game where he did very well. I still think there are parts of his game he needs to improve on, but I have been open and honest with Ashley about that.

“I thought he didn’t do himself any harm on Saturday with his performance and his goal. He hasn’t played for a while and he’s one of a few who will improve with games.”

Grimes is set to feature against Woking tomorrow as the Bluebirds hope to record back-to-back National League wins for the first time this season.

He was not a part of the squad when AFC recorded a 2-1 success over Surrey side, but hopes he has done enough against Welling to earn the chance this weekend.

“It’s nice to score and nice to win and I enjoyed getting a game,” he said of his performance against the Wings.

“It has been difficult couple of months with injuries and not playing, so it’s always nice to come back.

“You want to make an impact when you come back. Every time you play a football match you want to do your best for yourself and, more than anything, for the team.

“I thought I did okay. I thought the team played very in the second half and I thought I played a decent part in that. I was pleased with my performance.”