Manager Ian Evatt believes Barrow AFC would struggle to recover as a club if the National League season was declared null and void in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The National League clubs yesterday asked the Football Association to help them end their campaign as soon as possible 'for the purposes of player contracts.'

With the Bluebirds four points clear at the top of the table when the season was suspended, they face an anxious wait as to whether the season will go down in the records, as it would mean a return to the Football League for the first time since 1972 if it did.

If they were denied, however, it would be a crushing blow for the club, whose board has made a big effort to make it more sustainable since taking control from the Casson family in November 2018.

Evatt told the Press Association: "I don't think it would recover. I don't see how you can, in the interest of fairness, void the season when some teams in our league have only got seven games to play.

"For me, I get people are going to say, 'Well, you're top of the league, it's easy to say', but I genuinely believe my view would be the same regardless (of where we are) - you are where you are at the moment and you are where you deserve to be.

"Now if this was halfway through the season or under, you can completely understand voiding a season.

"But we're talking about, from some clubs' perspective, seven games. Seven games away from completing the season. You cannot, you cannot, null and void it.

"And if that was the case, obviously my board of directors, the chairman would probably look at their investment in the football club.

"We don't overspend, we don't sign players on thousands of pounds in the National League like some do. But they've redeveloped the ground, there's stuff going on at the moment which obviously needs to comply with the EFL because we're confident of getting the job done.

"We've been top for five months and no-one, no disrespect to anyone, has really come that close to us.

"From our perspective, the interest of fairness would be for us to be promoted and that is my view regardless of where I am right now because of how many games have been played and where we're at in the season."