Barrow AFC’s players will have to earn the trust of manager Ian Evatt all over again after their shock FA Cup defeat against Chorley last Saturday.

The Bluebirds produced arguably their worst performance of the season in the second half of their fourth qualifying round tie at Victory Park, where they squandered a 2-0 half-time lead.

From such a position, AFC should have inflicted on Chorley their first defeat of the season, but instead casual passing and some slack defending allowed the National League North leaders to dominate the remaining 45 minutes and win 3-2.

This is the second season in a row that Barrow have been knocked out of the Cup by lower-league opposition and it was the last straw for Evatt, as it wasn’t the first time in the campaign his players have let a winning position slip away.

Evatt said: “This is a man’s game and now they’ve got to stand up and be counted.

“If we use this as a bank account model, the players have used up all their credit now and they’re now starting to go into their overdraft.

“They’ve got to build up some credit with me, some trust with me and some credit and trust with the supporters again because I can’t emphasise enough that I can’t believe I sat and watched that from a team of mine in the second half.

“It’s not good enough, it’s not acceptable and they need to improve, and improve fast, and stand up and be counted.”

Evatt ordered his players in for extra training at Hopwood Hall on Sunday as punishment, following their capitulation.

For the players, reviewing the match is sure to be an unpleasant, but necessary, experience as they look to produce the right response when they host Barnet on their return to National League action this weekend.

Evatt said: “This is people’s jobs and livelihoods and our fans paid a lot of money to come down and support us on Saturday, so I won’t be rewarding people with days off.

“We needed to go back to work, go back to the drawing board and improve, simple as that.”

One player did manage to escape Evatt’s ire, however, after striker Tyler Smith managed to show the sort of purpose and energy too many of his teammates failed to match.

“Every week that young lad gets kicked from pillar to post by big, strong, meathead centre-halves and again he’s stood up, he’s worked his socks off and he’s deserved the goal he got,” Evatt said.

“He’s the only one, out of all of them, that could go home with any credit.

“The rest of them need to take themselves in front of a mirror and have a long, hard look at themselves and ask ‘is that good enough’ because the answer is ‘no.’”