On their last visit to Kent, Barrow AFC picked up their one away win of the season so far and manager Ian Evatt is hoping his side can summon the same spirit at Ebbsfleet United tomorrow.

When the Bluebirds won 2-0 at Dover Athletic at the end of September, it looked like things were starting to click for them, as they produced arguably their most dominant performance of the campaign.

However, they make the 620-mile round trip to Northfleet off the back of four straight defeats, in all competitions, and with their confidence extremely fragile.

Nowhere was this more evident than Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss at Harrogate Town, where an accomplished first-half display, which gave them a 1-0 lead, gave way to a second-half shambles, as they conceded four goals in 16 minutes.

AFC supporters making the long journey will be hoping their team will be able to arrest their recent slide against Ebbsfleet, whose own off-the-field issues are more serious than Barrow’s.

Evatt said: “We just need to go there and play a la Dover, it’s as simple as that.

“Everything else in the last few weeks – the Cup game [at Chorley] and then the three defeats in the league – has not been good enough and we need to change it.

“We need to be better than what we have been, there’s no excuses and we need to get our heads down, work hard and not repeat our mistakes.”

Just one point and two places separate the Bluebirds and the Fleet in the National League table, which only raises the importance of the clash at Stonebridge Road.

Evatt said: “Every game is a big game. We’re firmly mid-table and every team has a spell like we’re having during a season.

“The way you get yourselves out of it is by putting your head down and working hard and we need to do that really quickly.

“I’m clear in my mind what needs to be fixed and it’s just about how we go about doing that now.”

One of the roads Evatt could be going down in the near future is bring new players in, after he admitted following the Harrogate game that he’s prepared to ‘wheel and deal’ to stop his side from becoming a soft touch.

What certainly has to change is AFC’s habit of collapsing once they concede, which has seen them surrender leads meekly in their last two away games and heads drop after going behind at home to Barnet last week.

Evatt was left ‘flabbergasted’ by the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the performance before and after half-time in midweek and is struggling to find an explanation as to why it keeps happening in games.

“We knew Harrogate would come on strong for the first 25 minutes of the first half, but we saw that out and then we scored the goal and we’re thinking ‘here we go,’” he said.

“We gave them all the right messages at half-time, telling them the first 25 minutes were important again, be professional, do all the right things, slow play down.

“Then we let in three goals in four or five minutes and the game’s gone.

“As soon as one goal goes in we seem to just kind of crumble and I can’t put my finger on it.

“It’s tough to take, it really is, and only hard work will get us through this, but we probably need to tweak a few things in terms of personnel and move forward from here.”