Despite seeing his side defeated by Furness Select on Tuesday night, Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt won’t be making any knee-jerk decisions over whether to field any of their players as trialists for the remainder of pre-season.

The Bluebirds are looking to put that shock 2-1 loss against a team made up of locally-based players when they face fellow Cumbrians Workington at Holker Street this afternoon.

Some of the player in opposition in midweek were familiar to AFC, as striker Nathan Reid and midfielder Christian Sloan made first team appearances for them, while others, such as Tom Dawson, have played in their under-21 or reserve teams.

Evatt is already looking at trialists such as Byron Harrison, amongst others, as he looks to put the finishing touches on his squad ahead of their National League opener at Wrexham on August 3.

Evatt said: “If you take that game in isolation, then yes they will get an opportunity, but you’ve also got to remember that I see a lot of them boys and my own boys and are they up to where they should be? Probably not, is the truthful answer.

“You might say ‘hang on, they’ve just beat you 2-1’ but let’s play again in six weeks and we’ll probably see a different outcome.

“We weren’t at the races for whatever reason but, no disrespect to them, nine times out of ten we’d win that game, but we congratulate them on the night.

“It’s not that we don’t look at them. We do look at them - I’ve had Christian Sloan, Nathan Reid and Tom Dawson involved with us and when I see them in training, are they quite up to what my lads can do? Probably not.

“That night, they just wanted it more than us and that was the main reason for us getting beat.”

The match against Furness wasn’t completely without its positives, as Dior Angus again looked lively after being brought on to the right wing in the second half, following his good performance against Blackburn the previous Saturday.

Meanwhile, Brad Barry gave a sign of what is hopefully to come in what was his first appearance the Bluebirds since his summer move from Chesterfield.

Evatt said: “Dior is looking sharp and I thought he did really well and probably him and Brad Barry were the positives.

“Josh Kay had to score what was a guilt-edged chance that puts the game to 2-0 and probably it was game over.

“I’m not going to lose sleep over the result - it’s not a great result, it’s not a good result, but Furness Select XI need a lot of credit for what they did because it was an outstanding performance from them.”