WHILE Ian Evatt continues to cast his spell over the National League and take us, step by step, toward the promotion dream, it’s important to understand that sitting behind the playing staff and the league position is another layer of challenge.

Without it, promotion would be impossible. I refer to the governance and processes by which we, as a club, demonstrate to the authorities that we’re ready for the scale of the challenge to come.

Most supporters will now have seen that our Football League application has been approved. We’re now ‘promotion-ready’ and can focus on the on-field drama as the season moves toward its conclusion.

Credit must go to Kris Wilkes for the work that goes into these applications.

Once again, the time, energy and money that Kris invests in the club is ‘behind the scenes’ compared to many of our other directors, volunteers and staff and it can be easy to lose sight of everything that he’s contributed to Barrow AFC since joining us.

Make no mistake: without Kris, we would not be approved for the Football League.

The approval was a huge step forward but in many ways it’s also the easy part. Providing a plan of work, schedules and quotes may be labour intensive but it’s ultimately a paper exercise.

Actually delivering these jobs to time, cost and quality constraints is a whole other challenge and one which we must now stand ready to take on over the next three years.

The fanzone project continues at pace – even if Kris looks likely to owe me a pint by missing his original target completion date due to the horrific February weather – and thoughts will soon turn to the canopy roof on the Holker Street End during the summer.

This ground belongs to everybody and ideas and suggestions are absolutely welcome. I for one am always happy to listen and raise concerns / questions at board level.

The work ahead will be hugely demanding and, in places, costly, but we all hope to emerge from the other side with a ground not only regulation-compliant, but also one that we take great pride in as a supporter community.

These are exciting times for Barrow AFC, and it’s only possible because we’re all working towards it together.