Poor timekeeping led to McFarlane's departure from Barrow AFC, says Ian Evatt

McFarlane was with the Bluebirds for less than two weeks, with the only glimpse supporters had of him being the one a hardy away band witnessed at Havant & Waterlooville just over a fortnight ago.

The 22-year-old’s loan was meant to last for a month, but he has already been replaced in the squad by Port Vale’s Dior Angus because Evatt felt he was falling short of the standards he expects from his players.

Unfortunately for the AFC boss, he wasn’t able to reveal the news on his terms, as a player spilled the beans on social media.

Evatt said: “Kyle McFarlane, for disciplinary reasons, has been sent back to Birmingham.

“I set a standard in the group, we have a standard for training and if people don’t respect those standards – and I’m not saying Kyle is a bad lad, I don’t think he’s a bad kid – but I have to set an example. If people are consistently late, then there comes a point where I lose my patience and he was consistently late, which to me is respectful and to the group is disrespectful. For that reason, he’s been sent back, no other reason at all.”

The player who revealed McFarlane was back with Birmingham, via his Twitter account, was former Hibernian striker Jamie Insall who is currently serving a two-year ban for cocaine use, which expires at the end of March.With a trip to former club Chesterfield coming up this weekend, Evatt is now keen to put what were a difficult few days behind him.

The disappointment of seeing Agustien leave Barrow, and the fall-out from that, was followed by a flat 0-0 draw against FC Halifax Town last Saturday, which was their third straight game without scoring.

“It’s just nonsense. There comes a point where we have to draw the line and, for me, we’ve done that now,” Evatt said. “It’s over, we move on, all this nonsense on the internet needs to stop and we just get along as a football club and we keep improving and keep moving forwards.”