Barrow AFC’s excellent form last month has been rewarded after Ian Evatt was named as the National League’s Manager of the Month for December.

The Bluebirds won four out of their five league games, with the other drawn, to end their 2018 in impressive fashion and lift themselves into the top half of the table.

The highlights from the month included a dramatic 3-2 win in front of the BT Sport cameras against promotion-chasing Salford City, which was witnessed by a bumper crowd inside Holker Street.

Over 2,300 saw Jacob Blyth’s stoppage-time winner against the Ammies, which came one week after AFC’s best away result of the season so far, as John Rooney’s strike gave them a 1-0 victory at fifth-placed Solihull Moors.

That all came in the middle of an eight-match unbeaten run in the National League that rekindled hopes of mounting a play-off push in the second half of the campaign.

Evatt, who succeeded Ady Pennock as Barrow boss last summer, will be looking to get his side back to winning ways when they return from a two-week break from action against FC Halifax Town at Holker Street.

Having opened 2019 with a creditable 0-0 away draw against AFC Fylde on New Year’s Day, they went into their current hiatus off a disappointing 2-0 loss at struggling Havant & Waterlooville nine days ago.