Manager Ian Evatt admits to feeling ‘disrespected’ by some of Barrow AFC’s fellow National League clubs during the fall-out after the remainder of the 2019/20 season was cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bluebirds were four points clear at the top of the table at the time of the campaign being halted and there have been widespread calls that they should be allowed to be promoted to the Football League.

It has been a long and nervous wait for the club so far, and it’s likely last for a further day at least after the EFL delayed their meeting about how to conclude the season by 24 hours, to next Tuesday.

If that wasn’t stressful enough for Evatt, he’s seen arguments from other clubs that the campaign should be declared null and void, with Dover Athletic chairman chairman Jim Parmenter saying: “At the end of the day, Barrow have won nothing.

“I think there are three or four teams who could quite right claim that if the games were played, with 27 points to play for, they may have overtaken them.”

Evatt has taken exception to comments like that.

He said: “People obviously want what’s best for their own teams, I completely understand that, but it needs to be put across in a constructive way and the debate needs to be constructive.

“I welcome debate and I’ll have it in a respectful manner, but I just think there are too many people, especially in the National League, whether its fans or people involved in clubs who have been disrespectful to our football club.

“And I’ll never forget it because I think, deep down, if you ask the teams’ managers, their coaching staff and the rest of the players that played against us this season, they’ll tell you that we were the best team in the league.

“The sad thing for me is no-one asked for this virus to come or asked for the league to be suspended then stopped because we wanted to finish it on our own and we’ve missed out on some big crowds at Holker Street and we’ve missed out on the celebrations.”

The basis for a lot of the opposition the Bluebirds have faced appears to be the defeats they suffered against Dover and Notts County not long before the pandemic; their only league defeats since October.

Evatt said: “Notts County couldn’t get out of their half for 60 minutes, it was all us and they were hanging on for dear life.

“Scott [Quigley] then got sent off and the game completely changed, which it does in key moment like that, but for 60 minutes they didn’t deserve to be on the same pitch as us.

“It was the same with Dover away, where we could have won by eight, which is not exaggerating, so people are obviously going to look at that - Barrow have lost two games. But if you look at the games in isolation, we didn’t deserve to lose either of them.”