The last meeting between Barrow AFC and Aldershot Town proved to be a turning point in both teams’ seasons.

Before the match at the Recreation Ground on November 24, the Bluebirds had lost their last six games, in all competitions, while the Shots were fresh off taking League One Bradford City to a penalty shoot-out in the FA Cup.

However, Ian Evatt’s side were the ones celebrating at the end, as goals from Tyler Smith and Jack Hindle gave them a 2-0 victory that is arguably their most crucial result of the season.

Not only did it stop the rot, it also began a superb run of just one defeat in 14 league games (keeping ten clean sheets in the meantime) that has only faltered in the last week.

In contrast, it took Aldershot almost three months until they won in the National League again, when they eked out a 1-0 win at the surely-doomed Braintree Town two weeks ago.

But the damage had well and truly been done by this point, as their 14-match winless run dropped them deep into relegation trouble.

Indeed, they go into tomorrow’s return fixture against Barrow seven points adrift of safety, after they unfortunately returned to losing ways with a 2-0 defeat at home to Gateshead last Saturday.

Looking ahead to the game, Aldershot manager Gary Waddock told their club website: “It’s a long trip, as we know, it’s a difficult place to go to, but we have to be in a positive frame of mind.

“I’ve watched them in their recent games - Orient I’ve watched, and Barnet - and I have to say that they played extremely well in both them games and were unfortunate in terms of the scorelines.

“The manager, Ian Evatt, has done a very, very good job there in turning the playing side of it around. It’s always a difficult place to go to.”

That was certainly the case for the Shots in their last visit to Holker Street, in November last season, when Adi Yusuf’s hat-trick gave the then relegation-threatened Bluebirds a 3-1 win.