IAN Evatt is adamant that Barrow AFC’s passing style will bring rewards if his side discover the killer instinct in front of goal that has often been lacking during the 2018/19 season.

There are several games during the Vanarama National League campaign where the Bluebirds believe the result has not reflected how they performed.

The 3-2 home defeat against Leyton Orient on Tuesday night was the latest example of that.

Some supporters in Holker Street occasionally voice their frustrations during games that home players do not cross the ball into the box quickly enough, or that they do not take enough shots from long range.

Regardless of this, AFC created enough chances against the O’s with the patient, probing game plan which Evatt has asked his players to execute since he took charge summer.

That alone has left them still feeling confident ahead of today’s visit of Aldershot Town.

Evatt said: "We preach that if you can’t shoot and you feel like it’s a risk to shoot, then you must find that extra pass.

"Nine times out of 10, that extra pass is on and we just don’t see it.

“We do practice shooting from distance, we do practice crossing the ball, but sometimes when Leyton Orient have three centre-halves who are all 6ft 5in and they’re camped in their area, there’s no good putting in the air because all they’re going to do is head it away, so we have to find another way to beat them.

“I use the analogy with my players all the time that if you’re a UFC fighter or a boxer and Conor McGregor, for example, he’s a good boxer.

“One of the other guys he’s fighting might be a wrestler. There are different ways to win a fight, different ways to skin a cat and we have to work and probe and find that extra pass, find that moment to shoot and then when we do, we must be clinical.

“We are creating more chances than any team in this division, we just aren’t putting them away.”

One player who did need several chances to score against Orient was Josh Kay, who eventually found the back of the net with a deflected effort which sparked Barrow’s fightback from 3-0 down.

Evatt was pleased with the way the 22-year-old, who was playing as a right-winger, kept coming back for more instead of shrinking away and letting his missed opportunities prey on his mind.

And the Bluebirds boss believes Kay has shown that role wide on the right is the one he is best-suited to as well.

He said: “He’s a young player and he’s learning his trade. He’s learning all the time and it’s took me a while to work out where his best position is.

“That is his best position, no doubt about it, and again I reiterate it’s not about where we are now as a football club, it’s about where we’re going in the future and this club is 100 per cent moving in the right direction.”