Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt was left wondering after his side’s 3-1 defeat at Barnet why his attackers couldn’t have shown the urgency they displayed in the closing stages sooner.

It was an uncharacteristically sloppy performance from the Bluebirds, who had to chase the game as early as the fifth minute, after Elliott Johnson made the most of a Kyle Jameson mistake to open the scoring for the Bees.

It took them about half an hour to get going at The Hive and they again showed a lack of ruthlessness up front while the game was in the balance, only this time the solidity at the other end of the pitch was also lacking, for once.

It was only after Barnet put the result beyond doubt that AFC finally rallied, pulling a goal back through Jameson, but their strong finish, in Evatt’s eyes, did not make up for what had previously occurred.

Evatt said: “The last ten minutes isn’t good, anyone can play when you’re 3-0 down.

“It’s easy to step up to the plate then, when you’ve nothing to lose. It needs to be from minute one and it’s unacceptable.

“We’ve more or less dominated the game for 90 minutes and they’ve been our box three times and scored three goals.

“We’ve missed chances, our decision-making in the final third – we’re working on it constantly and I see them on the training ground every day and that’s why I find it frustrating.

“They cut each other to ribbons and it was there for them today – Barnet more or less sat 11 men behind the ball for the entire game and we have to be more ruthless, we have to be more clinical.

“We didn’t defend well enough today, the three goals were sloppy, poor goals to concede and it’s hard for me to have a go at them when they’ve kept ten out of 14 clean sheets, so it is unlike us.

“Sometimes, when the defenders are having a bad time, you need strikers to step up to the plate and bail them out and they’ve not done that today.”