IAN Evatt believes Barrow are a much harder nut to crack than the last time they faced Bromley, as they look to avenge an earlier defeat to the Ravens at Holker Street a week today.

The Bluebirds lost 2-1 to the Ravens at Hayes Lane back in October, despite having the majority of the possession and chances on the day, only to be beaten by a couple of soft goals from set-pieces.

It also kicked off a worrying, at the time, six-game losing run, in all competitions, that led to Evatt believing that his team had developed a soft underbelly.

The same cannot be said for the last couple of months, as AFC have kept eight clean sheets in 11 league games since Evatt switched to playing three at the back for the away match at Aldershot Town on November 24.

Evatt said: “I think we’re harder to beat, I think the results prove that. We’ve only lost once in 11 games in the league, which is very good.

“We’ve kept a hell of a lot of clean sheets as well.

“My message to the players is if we can’t win, or don’t win or don’t play well on the day, then we don’t lose and we don’t concede goals.

“That’s what we’re starting to get; that steel and stability that we perhaps didn’t have before.

“We just need to be more clinical in the final third – I thought we probably should have scored two or three at Chesterfield, which our play deserved, but we didn’t quite take our chances. Hopefully, that will come in the weeks to come.”

Evatt will be forced into making at least two changes for the match against Bromley, with Rhys Turner out with a groin tear and Lee Molyneux suspended, following his red card at Chesterfield.

The fit-again Rhys Norrington-Davies can step in for the latter, but it is how Evatt tries to find the right attacking balance against the Ravens which could prove intriguing, as Barrow look to end a run of four games without a goal.

Evatt said: “I think we can tweak things – we can certainly tweak the shape that we’ve been playing, so we’ll look at doing that, what’s best for us and what gives us the best way of beating Bromley.

“As always, we’ll look at their last three games and watch closely what they do, find their strengths and weaknesses and then work on those.

“That’s what we’ve been doing during this two-week gap.”