Vanarama National League: Ian Evatt proud of Barrow AFC performance in defeat at Ebbsfleet United

This was as dominant a performance the Bluebirds have produced since their previous visit to Kent, the 2-0 victory at Dover in September, but on this occasion, they couldn’t find a reward.

It was still a big step up, however, from their previous three displays, which forced Evatt to spell out some home truths, to the point where he is looking to bring players in the reinforce his squad.

While the bottom line is that Barrow have now lost five matches in a row, in all competitions, they at least go into their match against Eastleigh in two weeks’ time with some pride restored after an encouraging afternoon.

Evatt said: “We were excellent, we were fantastic today and I’m really proud of them because they stepped up to the plate.

“The way we moved the ball was back to how we were and how we are, we missed chance after chance in the first half and we missed chances again, second half, so we’ve got to be more clinical.

“The way things are going at the minute, one mistake has cost us the game, but other than that I think Joel [Dixon] was a passenger.

“It was attack v defence for virtually the 90 minutes, so I’m really pleased with the lads and I’ve just told them if we play like that for the rest of the season, we’ll have no problems and we’ll finish in the top ten because we are a good side when we play like that.”

AFC had a couple of penalty shouts waved away during the match, with the one on Jack Hindle having a particularly strong case to be awarded.

There was also controversy near the end as left-back Rhys Norrington-Davies, one of the star performers on the day, was booked for diving.

Evatt said: “I think he was clipped, but the frustrating thing for me is that the referee blew when Rhys had got up to play again and he was still in possession of the ball.

“Also, there was probably a handball, but there’s no excuses, we should have taken the chances that we created.”