Barrow boss Pete Wild believes disappointment in a 1-1 League Two draw against Gillingham shows just how far his side have come.

The Bluebirds ended a run of four straight league defeats thanks to Josh Kay’s 35th-minute opener, though his penalty – which would have given them a 2-0 lead – was saved, and the hosts equalised in the 74th minute through Elkan Baggott.

A point sees Barrow remain 11th in the table and Wild still believes that, despite some disappointment, there were positives to take from the match.

He said: “To come to Gillingham and be gutted to get a draw shows how far Barrow have come. You come to places like this and the home side have every right to dominate the game.

“But, apart from the final 20 minutes today, we dominated the game.

“If we had scored the penalty – or at least one of the other really good chances we had – we’d have come away with three points.

“I think maybe at the start of the season, we win that game. I think the biggest praise I can give my team is that, during the run of defeats, we never lost heart or hope.

“They’ve continued to do what we wanted them to do and I think everybody has seen that in abundance today. It was a really solid performance away from home.”

Meanwhile, there was much less positivity from Gills boss Neil Harris, who felt his side were never at their best at the Priestfield Stadium.

Harris said: “It was a tough watch, I’ve got to be honest. The first 33 minutes to be precise were really poor.

“We didn’t take care of the ball, they played on the front foot and they came and competed with us.

“We didn’t meet the same standards as we did last week against Stevenage for whatever reason. We adjusted the shape at half-time but even then we weren’t great.

“The game changed on the penalty save and that sparked us and sparked the crowd. Sometimes you need that moment. It put Barrow on the backfoot.

“I have to accept that we played poorly and got a point. It would have been very harsh on Barrow had we won the game. We weren’t very good today. Why? I don’t know.

“We took care of players during the week but we have to look to see if we got it right in training.

“Today is possibly a gentle reminder that, while we’re a few games unbeaten, we’re still a long way from where we want to be.”