In winning three of their last four games and keeping a clean sheet in all of them, Barrow AFC have revived their season, but manager Ian Evatt won’t be letting anyone stand back and admire their good work.

The AFC boss still believes his side are ‘underachieving’ despite their recent rise into the top half of the National League and stated after last Saturday’s 1-0 win over Maidstone that he hasn’t given up on a play-off push.

They’ll have to wait until next week to see if they can maintain their momentum in the league, when they begin their tough festive period away to surprise high-flyers Solihull Moors.

First up, though, is what the Bluebirds will be hoping is the beginning of a good run in the FA Trophy, as they host fifth-tier rivals FC Halifax Town, who they are five points ahead of in the table, in the first round at Holker Street.

Evatt said: “I think we’ve done well in our last few games, I think the results are good, but we’ve got a long way to go.

“We’re not counting our chickens, we know we are still, in my opinion, underachieving with the players we’ve got and we need to have a very good second half to the season.

“No-one is resting on their laurels and we’re working extremely hard in training to try and make sure that we keep up this good run of results.”

A run of resilient performances have put to bed fears that Barrow had become a soft touch, with the defensive sloppiness seen previously largely eradicated since Evatt made the switch to playing with a back three.

It’s also allayed any worries supporters may have had that they’d be witnessing another fight against relegation, after the Bluebirds stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season.

The run of five straight league defeats during the autumn pushed them to within three points of the drop zone, but AFC fans are now looking up in the table rather than over their shoulders and hoping they can keep up the good form in the Trophy.

Evatt said: “I think we are in an OK position. Everyone talks about last year and about how the club only survived on the last day and how they were in a relegation fight all season.

“The budget was cut massively in the summer – I’m probably working on half the budget that the previous managers were, or even less than that.

“That meant expectations weren’t high, but from day one I had my own expectations and I want success.

“I’m not happy with surviving from relegation, which was more or less the remit of the season.

“I don’t want to be mid-table, I want to us to push on up the league, get in the top ten and hopefully sniff around the play-offs.

“If we can do that, then the fans will be very happy.”