Striker Scott Quigley believes no other decision could have been made other than to allow Barrow AFC to be promoted as champions after they finished the curtailed National League season on top of the pile.

The Bluebirds’ 48-year exile from the English Football League was finally brought to an end last week after National League clubs voted to decide final positions on a points per game basis, as part of their ‘Ordinary Resolution'.

Ian Evatt’s side were four points clear with nine games remaining when the coronavirus outbreak brought a halt to the campaign, meaning they still would have had work to do.

While there was plenty of support for them to be promoted in the intervening three months, there was some opposition, namely from Dover Athletic, whose chairman Jim Parmenter advocated the season being voided.

Quigley said: “It could have gone to null and void, which no-one really wanted and it would have been so wrong, after all our hard work, to just write off a season.

“The thing is if they had written off this season then if this ever happens again then they would have to do the same thing, so it was definitely the right decision.

“It’s just a shame that we couldn’t have finished it in the proper manner, but we’ll take it and everybody is really happy with the decision to promote us into the Football League.”