Even though his side’s play-off ambitions haven’t been realised, Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt won’t be allowing his players to coast through their final four matches of the season.

The Bluebirds have been hovering around mid-table in the National League since December and have never been in any danger of being sucked into a repeat of last year’s struggle against relegation.

However, they haven’t been able to pick up results consistently enough to allow them to challenge higher up the table, even though a top-ten finish is still very much a possibility.

They welcome Dover Athletic to Holker Street this afternoon, with the visitors having more to play for, as they could secure their survival from the drop if they claim something from the game.

Evatt doesn’t want Barrow to have an end-of-season look about them, saying: “I think you know me well enough now to know that I won’t stand for any flip flops being worn during the game on Saturday.

“We’ll be going full-out to win the game, it’s as simple as that.

“Our players will have that attitude and that responsibility to go out and entertain the fans and hopefully get all three points.”

For the third home game running, Barrow are allowing supporters aged 16 and under into the ground for free, with the last two instances leading to larger-than-normal crowds inside Holker Street.

Evatt is hoping bringing in younger fans will help to improve the atmosphere during games or even persuade them to join the already impressively-sized band of travellers who follow them across long distances for away games.

Evatt said: “I must say that our away fans all season have been magnificent – they are primarily the heartbeat of any football club.

“The travelling fans are the ones who are the real die-hards, who want to see through thick and thin and to travel in that many numbers to somewhere like Dagenham & Redbridge is something special and something we should be proud of as a club.

“Hopefully we can give them more good away days to shout and sing about and we just want to recreate what the away fans do at home, really.

“We want to create that sort of atmosphere that makes it difficult for opposition teams to come and play and really back our boys because we’ve got some very good players at this football club at the moment.

“They really need the backing and the singing, and the atmosphere can make the difference.

“If you can get that happening on a regular basis, I’m sure we can get some very good results at home.”