Barrow have signed the experienced defender, Chris Stokes on an initial five-month deal.
The 33-year-old joins the Bluebirds having been a part of Stephen Clemence’s side for the vast majority of their pre-season campaign, having featured at centre-back in the absence of skipper, Niall Canavan in recent games.
Stokes brings with him a wealth of experience having played over 400 professional matches, featuring for Coventry City, Kilmarnock FC, and Forest Green Rovers.
While at Kilmarnock, Stokes played alongside current Bluebird, Dean Campbell, where they helped Killie achieve promotion back to the Scottish Premiership.
Stokes made his professional debut over 14 years ago while on loan at Crewe Alexandra from then Premier League side, Bolton Wanderers.
He came through the ranks at Bolton and even secured six caps for England’s Under-17s youth team while with the Lilywhites.
Later, while with Forest Green Rovers he was capped by England C when they were a Conference League club.
Following his departure from Bolton at the end of the 2009/10 season, Stokes made a name for himself at Forest Green and Coventry City where he made over 228 league appearances in the following eight seasons.
Since then, he lined up for Stevenage Town and Bury FC before moving across the border to Scotland back in 2021.
He played 21 League games for Morecambe last season. He has notched 23 goals in his long career.
After signing Stokes said: “The club has done really well over the past two, three seasons in this division and it’s a great club to be at so when it came up it was an exciting opportunity for myself.
“You never know when you’re coming on trial what it’s going to be like, how long you’re in for and things like that so I was just taking it day by day at the start and the longer it went on, the more I wanted to sign.”
