With just 12 games of their season remaining, Barrow AFC have entered the run-in in their race for promotion and Ian Evatt is confident his players will hold their nerve, starting with tomorrow evening’s match against Sutton United.

After the Bluebirds outing against Dover in their previous league game, there were some nerves around Holker Street as the breakthrough in the return game against the Whites on Tuesday night proved a long time in coming.

The crowd’s collective heartrate would have also been racing during the 11 minutes of stoppage time that saw AFC doggedly hold on to the lead that was finally given to them by Dior Angus.

The 1-0 win put Barrow seven points clear at the top of the National League once again and well-placed going into the final two months of the season as they chase a memorable return to the Football League.

Evatt said: “Every game is tough at this stage of the season. Sutton’s manager, Matt Gray, is a fantastic guy - me and Pete [Atherton] both think a lot of him and it will be a tough game.

“They’re going to be at it on what is a difficult and strange surface to us, but we need to go there and keep our belief and keep our performance levels as they were on Tuesday. We’re fresh, we’re hungry and we’re ready to go.

“It’s only normal that the people of Barrow, the media, even the board to a certain extent, are going to be nervous because it’s been 48 years of hurt.

“What I can assure you is that we’re not feeling any nerves - we just feel strong, we feel confident and we’re ready to go.”

The match at Gander Green Lane, which kicks off at 5:20pm, is the latest chance for the Bluebirds to showcase themselves in front of a national audience, with the BT Sport cameras due to be present in South London.

It will be the third AFC game this season to be shown live and with other national outlets - such as The Athletic and The Times - running features on them in recent months, recognition from outside of Cumbria has already grown to an extent that Evatt’s side are no longer ‘under the radar.’

Evatt said: “I’m just lucky enough to be the front and face of it all.

“This is about the whole town; the fans, the board, my coaching staff, the players and the media guys. We’ve created this storm, we’ve created something special, but it’s only special if we go and finish the job. We have to go and finish the job now.

“We are currently the best team in the league and teams raise their game against us. We have to go to Sutton and make sure that we perform to our level and our standards.

“If we do that, then we’ve got a good opportunity to go and win the game.”

Evatt has also praised the performance of Scott Quigley in midweek, after the striker gave the Dover defence all kinds of problems, without being able to take any of the chances that came his way.

“He was outstanding. For whatever reason, it’s just not happening for him in front of goal against Dover, but I’d back Scott all day long to take some of those chances.

“I thought him and Dior’s hold-up play and their reliability in possession was superb. They really kept hold of the ball for us and they were a real handful.”