IAN Evatt is optimistic Barrow AFC will be able to get straight back into their stride when they return to action at home to Bromley on Saturday.

The Bluebirds are just over halfway through their second two-week break in the space of a month and they looked rusty the last time they took to the field following a fortnight off it.

It took them until the final 20 minutes of what was a drab 0-0 draw against FC Halifax Town at Holker Street for them to start looking like breaking the deadlock, having spent the previous time looking unusually careless in possession.

Following another scoreless contest at Chesterfield, AFC head into the clash against the Ravens off the back of eight clean sheets in their last 11 league games.

However, they are without a goal since Jacob Blyth’s stoppage-time winner against Salford City on December 29.

Evatt said: “We just need to play better than we did against Halifax, it’s as simple as that.

“I think if we can have a performance like we have done for 60 minutes at Chesterfield then hopefully we can get the right result.

“We just need to have more intensity, more energy and desire about our play, along with the bravery of keeping possession of the football.

“We’re a possession-based team, that’s what we are, so we just need to be better at that and hopefully we can do that against Bromley.”

There is mixed news on the injury front for Barrow, as wing-back Rhys Norrington-Davies is expected to return from the calf strain that kept him out of their last match at Chesterfield.

However, they will be without Rhys Turner, who is out for four weeks with a groin tear, while defender Kyle Jameson serves the final match of a three-game ban and Lee Molyneux is suspended as well.

The Bluebirds go into the match at Holker Street a point above Bromley in the Vanarama National League table and aiming to avenge October’s 2-1 defeat at Hayes Lane, which came despite them dominating possession.

Evatt said: “We’re 11th, which I’m sure if you offered everyone who was already at the club and all the supporters at the start of the season, they’d have probably taken your hand off.

“They didn’t know what they were getting with me – there were very few players, we’d had a change in ownership, the club has been through a big change.

“To be doing how we’re doing is okay and I’m relatively pleased, but obviously you know that I always want to do better.

“I think we can be doing better, and we’ll be trying to finish the season strong.”