Evatt's Barrow Blueprint Is Ready To Be Realised At Holker Street

The Bluebirds train some 100 miles away in Manchester during the week.

And having just staved off relegation by a single point the season before, it took a brave man to put his hand up and take the Bluebirds’ reins – not least one who was only just getting started.

But the ex-Premier League defender wasn’t fazed and jumped in headfirst.

Since then, he’s penned a new deal after AFC Fylde came calling. Did he ever consider jumping ship? Not a chance, he says.

“It was a risk for both parties for me to come here,” Evatt explains. “But it’s a risk I wanted to take and hopefully it’s starting to pay off a bit now.

“I had a difficult start with Chesterfield having already been relegated and at the time I hadn’t even considered management. I only took charge of three games, but it gave me the appetite to be a manager and that’s when Barrow made contact.

“Barrow gave me an incredible opportunity, a blank canvas. They have allowed me to change so much in such a short space of time. There was a massive distant between the supporters and the team.

“I changed the way we play completely. The mentality had to change too. We needed to lose the ‘Little Barrow’ tag because I’m not about just aiming for survival. But to be good, first you have to believe you’re good.

“It’s a long-term project, I want Barrow to be a Football League club,” he continued. “Look at the likes of Lincoln City, when you get up there, there’s no stopping you. We’ve got a long way to go but we’re well on our way to achieving something.

“Loyalty in football is very rare. My aim is to get Barrow into the Football League and I wasn’t willing to leave that for anyone.”

So how does someone who, in his own words, wasn’t thinking of management end up shooting for the stars in Cumbria?

Taking lessons from the late Jim Smith and former Blackpool gaffer Ian Holloway is a good start!

“I had some incredible managers as a player. Jim Smith who sadly just passed away gave me my debut at Derby County in the Premier League at 17-years-old and he taught me some proper old-school values,” Evatt explained.

“Then I had Ian Holloway at QPR and Blackpool – he made us believe in ourselves and playing without fear. I’ve taken all those lessons to Barrow with a few adaptations. You have to take stuff off the good managers you work with as a player – Ian has influenced me hugely.

“I still speak to Ian Holloway. That group of Blackpool players all in a big WhatsApp group and we speak daily, we had such a good bond and we stick together.

“I see a lot of similarities with my time at Blackpool to how Barrow are now. It’s very similar in terms of when Ian Holloway arrived, they’d just stayed up the season before and he came in and had to change the mentality and the style of play which is exactly what I had to do here.

“Just like us back then, people are writing Barrow off constantly. But we’re a strong team and we have so much belief.”

Another trick he picked up from his old manager was how to get plenty of bang for his buck.

Top-scorer Scott Quigley arrived from Blackpool for nothing in the summer. Patrick Brough, Dior Angus and Bradley Barry also signed on as Evatt continued to make his mark.

And while some continue to disregard the Bluebirds as serious contenders, the determined boss wants to make them eat their words.

“It’s easy for teams to sit there with their huge budgets and say we’ve got no star names, but we’ve got some very good young players who shouldn’t be underestimated,” he said.

“We can’t go and recruit the finished article but what we can do is get potential and try and polish up a diamond, and we’ve done that over the past couple of years. To be a good footballer, you need to live the game 24/7 and my players do that.

“We are now a possession-based football team who get at the opposition with pace and intensity so it’s working.

“That being said, you don’t win any prizes in December, we need to be where we are now in April and that’s our ambition.”

Solihull Moors are up next, a club who themselves know all about defying odds after seasons of struggle.

And Evatt is well aware of the threat Tim Flowers' side can cause to his table toppers.

"It was a slow start to the season for us," he said. "We were playing well in games, but we made a lot of mistakes at both ends but we adapted slightly with our shape and our system and since then we’ve really took off and had some good results.

"Solihull Moors are a very effective team. They’re the opposite of how we play to be honest and it’s going to be a difficult game.

"I’m looking forward to it because we’re both going to be up there come the end of the season and these are the kind of games you can use to judge your season.

"I just want us to keep going," he added. "It’s a terribly old cliché but I’m really pleased with our season. But it is only December; I can’t stress that enough.

"People can say we’re overachieving but if you look at the stats over the past 50 games or so, we’re one of the best performing teams."