Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt is undaunted about his team having to really rack up the miles in the coming week, as they look to put last Saturday’s FA Cup defeat against Solihull Moors behind them.

The Moors have a first round tie at National League South side Oxford City to look forward to after ambushing the Bluebirds at Holker Street, where Liam Daly’s header snatched a 1-0 win for the visitors.

AFC are unlikely to dwell on that disappointment, however, as Saturday’s match against Torquay United gives them another chance to run up a club record-equalling eighth straight league win, after their previous fixture against Dover Athletic was postponed.

It begins what will be a gruelling few days for Evatt’s players, as the near 350-mile journey to Devon will be followed by a 308-mile trek to East London for a midweek game at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Evatt said: “This league is challenging, it’s the same for everybody - we’ll make sure we get there on time, first and foremost, and then after that perform to the best of our abilities.

“If we do that, then I’m confident that we’ll win. I’m confident we can beat most teams in this league.

“Solihull are no mugs - they’ve sixth in the National League and at times we made them look very average. We just didn’t get that goal that we needed and then we got done with a sucker punch.

“We’ll go again, we’ll dust ourselves off and there’s bigger fish to fry this season.”

Barrow could consider themselves very unlucky to have been defeated by Solihull after creating the majority of the chances in the game, only for goalkeeper Ryan Boot to have an excellent game for the visitors and other chances to slip by.

They did also have a couple of key decisions go against them during the game, including a goal being disallowed for a foul on Boot by striker Dior Angus from a hanging cross from Brad Barry, not long after they had fallen behind.

Evatt said: “I thought it was a soft decision. I think these days goalkeepers get too much protection - you’ve got to breathe on a ‘keeper nowadays and it’s a free kick.

“I also thought it was a penalty on Scott Quigley - I think he’s there to head the ball in, he’s goal-side of the lad and he’s brought him down.

“One or two decisions didn’t go our way in the game, but we can’t complain. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses; Solihull beat us, but we performed really well.

“If we perform like that 99 times out of a hundred we’ll win.”