Barrow AFC have resuscitated their season in the last couple of weeks and their manager Ian Evatt is hoping their recent run is something they can build upon in the coming games.

Evatt accepts his team had to go back to basics in order to bring the six-game losing run that was jeopardising their campaign to an end and they’ve appeared much sturdier as a result.

Picking up seven points from their matches against Aldershot, Wrexham and Braintree has lifted them away from trouble at the wrong end of the National League table and they sit 12th ahead of Saturday’s visit of struggling Maidstone United.

While Evatt is pleased AFC have become harder to beat, he is adamant that this is only the start and that there is plenty of improvement to come from his players.

Evatt said: “When you’re not getting results in the league and you go on a run of five or six games without a win, you have to go back to basics and you have to strip it back and start again.

“We’ve done that and we’ve done that really well, but now it’s time for us to push on.

“We’ve got a busy Christmas period coming up – an important Christmas period – and hopefully we can build on the foundations that we’ve laid.”

This time two weeks ago, Barrow were just three points clear of the relegation zone, with supporters starting to wonder where the next point was coming from.

Evatt, however, was happy with some of the performances during his side’s poor run and a change of formation has brought a change of fortunes and an improvement in all departments.

Rather than look worriedly over their shoulders, the Bluebirds can now concentrate on trying to continue their rise up the table.

Evatt said: “It’s been a good week and obviously a much-need week, after a month of hurt, in terms of results.

“As I said before, I wasn’t too worried, really, about performances – I don’t think we were playing too badly, we just needed to tweak a few things.

“I’d been thinking about trying to play a back three for a while, but we just haven’t had the players available to deal with the system like Jacob [Blyth].

“Now we’ve got him available, we’ve changed to that and it’s worked, but we’re only half-way through the season and there’s still a hell of a lot to play for.

“I don’t think we could be more middle-of-the-table if we tried and, for me, now we can only look up and really push on.

“I think we’ve been consistently inconsistent. That’s not good enough, not for the standards we set and we’ll continue to roll our sleeves up.”