Another miserable away defeat for Darlington had relegation written all over it at Underhill on Saturday.

Goals from player manager Tony Cottee, Danny Brown and Mark Arber consigned the Quakers to yet another defeat on their travels in a nightmare run of results that last saw them win away back in August.

Make no mistake about it, Darlington are right up to their necks in the relegation scrap; which is developing between themselves and bottom club York City.

After Exeter's win at York, Halifax's victory at Southend and Carlisle's draw with Plymouth, Quakers are four places and just two points off the bottom.

No league wins this year, 12 goals conceded in their last four league and cup games, and two goals scored in their last four games.

Relegation form? You bet, especially when you equate that Quakers have won only three times since the start of October in the league.

Manager Gary Bennett has bemoaned, quite rightly, on several occasions this season about the lack of quality at his disposal.

But it was clear on Saturday that some players didn't have the desire, the passion or the fighting spirit to grind out results.

Assistant manager Mick Tait agreed: "I don't think the football we played was too bad, but there was a lack of determination, and that is worrying," he said.

"They're all good footballers, but we need some fighting spirit in the team. Barnet were more determined than we were, and so it's up to me and Gary (Bennett) to do something about that.

"The lads might have it in them. They're all good footballers and good passers of the ball, but maybe the sequence of results over the past few months might have knocked them back into their shells a bit. We have got to give them a good shake up.

" It's difficult to be skillful, but it costs nothing to work hard. Barnet were first to every ball in the first half, and if that happens, then you come under too much pressure. We must make sure we're more determined every time we play

"We gave away some bad goals. The first came from us failing to play the offside trap. I thought we played better in the second half, but a fluky second goal finished us off. We tried to clear it, but it bounced off one of our defenders.

"And for the third, our defending was diabolical."

Once Barnet had gone ahead there was only going to be one winner.

The Londoners should have been three up by half-time if they had taken their chances close to goal, as Quakers struggled to stamp any authority on the game.

The two escaped Tigers, David Brightwell and Steve Harper must be thinking they've jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

A week ago, they were at a club which had a good team, but a dire financial situation.

Now they're at a club which in the eyes of the fans has a dire team, but a good finances. The general feeling is that Quakers need six wins for survival - but who are they going to beat?

One consoling factor this morning is that York City are in just as much trouble after they replaced opponents Exeter City at the bottom of the league after a 3-0 home loss to the Grecians.

Their recent form has, believe it or not, been worse than the Quakers'.

And unless things improve from Darlington's point of view, then the run in to the end of the season will have shades of the notorious scrap with Colchester in 1989.

And when Darlington fans first went to Barnet in 1990 in the Conference season, victory had them dreaming of a return to the Football League - Saturday has them fearing a return to the Conference.

Quakers were nearly a goal down inside the first five minutes. Darren Currie curled a free-kick wide, then the midfielder pulled a shot well off target after Sam Stockley set him up.

Barnet exposed Darlington several times down the right, and it was from that direction that the dangerous Cottee opened the scoring after 13 minutes.

He picked up a pass from Currie, raced into the box, tied Brightwell in knots, and then placed the ball past Andy Collett.

The Quakers nearly levelled shortly after when Glenn Naylor set up Paul Campbell. But the youngster shot wide.

Cottee should have doubled his side's lead after 29 minutes when yet another cross came in from the right.

But the former West Ham striker headed straight at Collett from six yards.

Cottee's fellow striker, Tony Richards, headed another chance over from six yards, while Harper - who had to play at right-back because Phil Brumwell pulled out with laryngitis - fell over inside his own area, allowing Mark Gower to go on and fire just wide.

Naylor almost got the visitors back in the game but his header was saved by Lee Harrison in the Barnet goal.

Darlington redoubled their efforts after the break and clever work by Williams opened up the defence for Naylor to run through, but he put his shot wide.

Debutant Brightwell also spurned a great chance to level when he ballooned Paul Heckingbottom's free-kick, over the bar.

But the game was all over after 67 minutes when Brown latched onto a loose ball and crossed into the six-yard-box for Currie to prod home from two yards.

Bennett's response was to shuffle the pack by pushing Naylor up front and bringing off John Williams.

Butrather than galvinising his side's flagging fortunes it signalled their demise as the Quakers conceded a third killer goal when Arber headed in from Brown's right-wing cross.