Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt felt his players let their heads drop after conceding the first goal of their disappointing 2-0 defeat against Barnet at Holker Street.

The Bluebirds were looking to produce a positive reaction to what has been a troubled week and began the match on the front foot and had two good early opportunities to go in front.

But a self-inflicted Bees opener really seemed to kill off their confidence and they went on to produce one of the more disappointing home displays of the season so far.

They seemed to lack belief in the second half in any attempt to make a comeback, suggesting that last week’s FA Cup disaster at Chorley is proving to be difficult to shake off.

Evatt said: “I think I got a reaction for the first 15 minutes, but again the goal affected us and after that it wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve obviously had a long chat in the changing room and everyone’s had a bit to say because I said from the start that I’m not in for middle of the table or middle-of-the-road.

“That’s not what I’m about as a character or a person and we need to all take responsibility and own it because the last couple of games haven’t been good enough.

“We need to stick together as a group – obviously it’s been a long week, with a hurtful defeat [at Chorley] last Saturday and then the things off the pitch going on this week, but that’s no excuse.

“We’ve got to take care of business on the field and today we didn’t do that after the first 15 minutes.

“The first 15 minutes looked like night and day, from a team who were really confident, with good, confident passing of the ball against a team that were trying to stop them.

“Then their goal goes in and then the roles were reversed and we’ve got to be tougher than that.

“I get that we’ve got a lot of young lads, but they’ve got to man up really quickly and we’ve got to start to look at things and improve.”