Barrow AFC 1Yeovil Town 0

An ugly 1-0 win. This is something we probably haven’t seen enough of since Ian Evatt took charge of Barrow AFC, after they used different means to get the job done against Yeovil Town.

That’s not to say the Bluebirds didn’t deserve this victory. They created the majority of the admittedly limited opportunities in this game, while the Glovers barely laid a you-know-what on them.

However, it was refreshing to see them claim all three points when not at their best, while it also allowed them to record back-to-back home wins for the first time in a year.

On the subject of anniversaries, Scott Quigley’s goal in the first minute of the second half was enough for the same outcome to be recorded against Yeovil as when the same teams met at Holker Street on what was then the Alliance Premier League’s first-ever matchday in August 1979.

Four decades on, the National League has grown into a vibrant top tier of non-League English football, enough so that fixtures from the fifth tier are regularly broadcast live. As part of the division’s 40th birthday celebrations, the BT Sport cameras were brought up to Holker Street for this clash between two of the league’s founder members.

In truth, they didn’t get much of a show. Instead, they got a scrappy contest between two teams who struggled to adapt to the windy conditions and only managed to produce three shots between them in an awful first half.

For a while, the main talking point of the day was the fact that most of Yeovil’s 72-strong travelling contingent didn’t arrive at the ground until half-time.

That was because a horrendous journey that included their bus breaking down near Warrington and as they finally made their way to the away end, they were informed over the tannoy: ‘You’ve missed nothing, it’s 0-0.’

Aside from a effort just wide from John Rooney in the 20th minute, the first three words were enough to describe the first half, but it only took 44 second of the second half for things to liven up.

Scott Quigley won’t score as many goals for Barrow as the player whose double defeated the Glovers 40 years ago, Colin Cowperthwaite, but he’s gone a long way towards making himself a crowd favourite in the past week.

His smart turn and finish inside the area was his third goal in three games and it was the start of an improved display after the break from the Bluebirds.

They should have had more as, yet again, they passed up clear chances with the match still in the balance.

While Quigley’s scoring run shows one side of a striker’s life, Dior Angus, whilst generally playing well, is experiencing the other, as his struggles in front of goal continued with a glaring miss from less than six yards off Olly Dyson’s cut-back.

However, such profligacy wasn’t costly this time and not just because Yeovil were poor up front on the day.

They were unable to create much against an AFC defence that has been in a giving mood at times this month, and you can only hope they’ll be as stingy again when they head to Evatt’s old club Chesterfield on Saturday.

Barrow AFC (4-3-3): Dixon, Barry, Hird, Taylor, Brown, Rooney, Hardcastle, Greaves (Waddington 90), Angus (Hindle 72), Quigley, Dyson.

Subs not used: Granite, Elsdon, Penfold.

Yeovil Town (3-5-2): Nelson, Skendi, Dickinson, Bradbury, Alcock, Worthington (Lee 65), D’Ath (McCoy 79), Whelan, Hutton (Seager 56), Hippolyte, Duffus.

Subs not used: Brzozowski, Rogers.

Referee: Peter Gibbons

Attendance: 1,218

Bluebirds star man: Jason Taylor