Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt has made it clear that any Football League interested in one his players better come up with the right price, ie a big one, if they make any offers.

The Bluebirds have several of their key players tied down to contracts that run beyond the end of the current campaign, including top scorer John Rooney, Scott Quigley, Josh Kay and Dior Angus, who extended his deal last Sunday.

Evatt has also managed to secure loanees Tom White and Matt Platt until the end of the season, with the emphasis on January being placed on keeping hold of the players he has, rather than look to bring anyone in.

However, with AFC flying high at the top of the National League, it is not surprising that other clubs have expressed an interest in certain players and made enquiries into signing them.

Evatt said: “I hope they’ve got a lot of money if they’re coming in to bid for one of our players because we ain’t giving them away.

“I don’t how much I should be saying here, but we had a ridiculous, ludicrous, in fact embarrassing, bid for one of our players last week from a club close by that was insulting.

“I’m not going to name names about who it was for and who it was from, but we aren’t giving players away, we aren’t tin pot, we are a proper football team, a proper football club, with magnificent supporters, that are going places.

“It you want to come and take our players, good luck, I hope you’ve got a few million in the bank.”

Evatt also had praise for Barrow’s groundsman who, along with some help from outside the club, managed to get the playing surface at Holker Street in such good shape for last Saturday’s crucial 2-0 win against Bromley.

The pitch cut up badly during the FA Trophy tie against FC United the previous Saturday in what was its third game in a week and the cause wasn’t helped by the amount of rain that fell during the days building up to the game against the Ravens.

Evatt had expressed his concerns during that time, but the amount of repair work that went in ensured that barely a bobble remained.

Evatt said: “I’ve congratulated Gareth [Morgan] and Alan, who has helped from Holker Old Boys. They did an outstanding job to get the pitch ready.

“If you’d have seen it earlier in the week, it was underwater. I’ve told them that it’s a vital part to what we do and how we play and they’re in it with us as well.

“We need this pitch to be as good as it possibly can be and be as flat as it possibly can be, so we can play the passing, attractive football that we want to play.”