Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt insists his door is always open if any of his players ever go through any off-field issues that may affect their game.

Evatt has shown how sympathetic he is to his players’ needs this week by granting Jason Taylor permission to attend the birth of his first child, even if that means him missing a game, with his wife due very soon.

The 37-year-old is well aware how important it is to keep players happy off the pitch, as well as ensuring that they go into every game, such as this afternoon’s at Ebbsfleet United, with their confidence high on it.

While he didn’t go into details, Bluebirds striker Jack Hindle opened up last week how a few issues in his personal life had affected him, which led to last season’s top scorer having a slow start to the current campaign.

Evatt said: “I would say one of my strengths as a manager is that I’m approachable and if the players are suffering off the pitch then they’re free to come and speak to me.

“They won’t be judged and, regardless of the situation or problem, I’ll try and help them because they’re human beings at the end of the day.

“They’re not just footballers, they’ve not indestructible, they have feelings, so if he has had off-the-field issues then Jack will come and speak to me and we’ll try and solve them together, in any way that I can help.

“That’s one thing that I massively believe in as a manager.”

That understanding approach seems to have done the trick with Hindle, who is starting to press for a place in Barrow’s starting line-up again with his confidence seemingly on the way back.

His determination to impress his manager was one of the reasons why he was frustrated by the tame end to last week’s win against Solihull Moors, after he came off the bench with the result already in the bag against opponents who’d had a man sent off.

Evatt said: “It’s difficult to cut through teams who put everybody behind the ball and are happy to accept losing 3-0.

“The game was already won, so we didn’t really need to have any real intensity to our play, so it was a strange feeling in many ways.

“But I think Jack, personally, has really come back into himself in the last week or two.

“His performance against Oldham [in the Lancashire Senior Cup] was outstanding and his work ethic when he came on last Saturday was great. He’s training a lot better and he’s really pushing the lads ahead of him in the first team at the moment.”

AFC have a quarter final at Preston North End to look forward to in the Lancashire Senior Cup, with the date yet to be confirmed.