CAPTAIN Danny Livesey wants to make sure Barrow AFC end their season on a high against Dover tomorrow – to ensure a successful campaign is remembered for the right reasons.

Livesey admits to great disappointment that the team were not able to go that extra step and reach the National League play-offs.

But the former Carlisle United man also recognises the huge progress that has been made at Holker Street over the last 18 months, and does not want the frustration at missing a top-five finish to cloud opinions.

Instead, he is looking for three points against Dover at Holker Street, which would ensure a sixth-placed finish and help build for what he sees as being a big season next year (12.15pm kick-off).

“Long-term, I would say there has been a lot of progression,” he said, assessing the season. “When I came into the club (in 2014), we did really well in Conference North, then struggled in the Conference, so to see us where we are now, comfortably safe by January, that’s huge strides.

“Personally, it’s a little bit disappointing that we couldn’t quite bump ourselves over that line. In the short-term, there is maybe a bit of disappointment around the squad that maybe be had a chance that we should have grabbed.

“But if you step back and think that we had a new squad at the start of the year, it was one of them where it would have been nice to carry on. But overall, if we carry on progressing, then maybe that is the better way, where you do it slowly and more steady and you have a longer-term plan with a longer-term goal.

“Last year, we were finding our feet. We were into a new league, there were new players. We weren’t just losing, in some of the games we were out of sight early doors, which is one thing that was pretty upsetting.

“We finished really strongly, you could see there was progression there, and then this season we have progressed again.

“If you take a step back and have a look like that, then it’s a lot more positive than the initial disappointment of not making the play-offs, which all the lads and the fans are probably feeling at the minute.”

He added: “No-one will be going into this weekend not trying, that is one thing we do pride ourselves on, and that every professional football player should pride themselves on. If you go out for a game, you want to win.

“We don’t want this season to be remembered for being beaten 4-1 at Bromley and getting hammered by Dover at home. You want to finish on a positive, look forward to next season and you can see real excitement that something is going to happen next season.”

Barrow could end up missing out on the play-offs by as little as a single point should they win tomorrow and Aldershot lose against Braintree.

The period of the season that really frustrates Livesey in that regard was January and February, when Barrow were unable to string together a run of positive results, winning just twice in eight National League games.

The AFC captain added: “The disappointing thing is when you look at the games we’ve lost or drawn, if in one of them we could have got a little bit of form, maybe in January or February, then that would have given us enough impetus.

“If that happens, then the Bromley result (a 4-1 loss on Good Friday) wouldn’t have been as big a crushing blow, because we would have picked up enough points throughout the season to cover it.”