Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt sees Bromley’s tactic of sitting back and looking to hit his team on the counter attack in last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat as a mark of respect as to how his players are performing.

Bromley seemed content to hold on after taking a seventh-minute lead at Hayes Lane, despite a blatant offside in the build-up being missed, and it allowed Barrow to settle after an uncertain start.

It was only after Erico Sousa hammered in his stunning equaliser that the Ravens began to show some adventure again, eventually going ahead again through Frankie Raymond’s free kick.

After the way, they dominated the second half, albeit without creating many chances, the Bluebirds left feeling like their performance hadn’t got its reward.

Evatt said: “In the first half, we didn’t solve the problems ourselves and it’s taken me to get them in at half-time and explain what we needed to do.

“They did that in the second half and our full backs became like wingers, which let Erico and Jack Hindle move inside and play like No.10s and we opened them up at times and played some much better football.

“Again, it was a bit of a strange game because they were at home and they’re hanging on from minute one, with 11 men behind the ball. It’s tough to break down, but that’s a credit to us and how good we are. I felt gutted for them because I feel we deserved a lot more than that.”

With an hour of the game played, it looked as though there was only going to be one winner, with Barrow pinning Bromley back in their own half and Sousa coming close to scoring again soon after his scorcher.

Although the hosts did miss a good chance through Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe’s header, it did still feel like them regaining their lead came out of the blue and they barely entered the AFC half again thereafter.

Evatt said: “Again, we played really well and showed that we’re improving and it’s just disappointing we’ve been beat.

“We were outstanding in the second half, we’ve just been done with a sucker-punch, although the lads were adamant it was offside. If it wasn’t, then we’ll hold our hands up and we’ll move again.”

It wasn’t the first time this season that Barrow left a game feeling they haven’t got the result they deserved, but Evatt believes he’ll have no problem picking the players up for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Chorley.

“We’re still a new team and a very young group,” he said, adding: “We’re doing well, although I think we could be doing better, but we’ll keep improving and eventually I think we’ll start to break teams down.”