5:19pm Saturday 28th March 2009
Darlington returned to winning ways with their first three points at Barnet for 14 years.
Quakers had not won at Underhill since 1995 when two Gavin Worboys goals helped earn a 3-2 win, but a solitary Pawel Abbott strike was enough to inflict a rare home defeat on Barnet.
The Bees had been unbeaten at Underhill in their seven previous home games, winning the last four in a row.
What made the win even more impressive was that administrators had cancelled a planned hotel stay on Friday night.
That meant Quakers had to make an early start this morning, leaving the North-East on their team coach at around 7am.
Plus, they were without injured captain Steve Foster and by the end of the game were without keeper Andy Oakes who was subbed in the second half and taken to hospital.
He had been stretchered off after colliding with veteran Barnet striker Paul Furlong and replaced by Polish reserve Przemyslaw Kazimierczak.
Fellow Pole Abbott had put Darlington ahead in the second half after good work by Danny Carlton.
Carlton beat at Barnet full-back and pulled the ball back from the byline to tee Abbott up in the 66th minute.
The goalscorer was a surprise starter as manager Dave Penney had said the striker would only be on the bench as he made his return from a back problem.
But Abbott started alongside Liam Hatch who returned, after serving a two-match ban, and the pair were two of Penney’s four changes to the side that lost 1-0 at Accrington on Tuesday.
Out were both full-backs from that game, Tim Ryan and Ryan Valentine, while David Poole dropped to the bench and Franz Burgmeier is on international duty. As well as Abbott and Hatch, in were Clayton Fortune, Adam Griffin.
With Barnet piling forward in the closing stages, Kazimierczak pulled off three good saves to maintain Darlington’s advantage.
He pushed wide a Yannick Bolasie drive and also made saves from Neal Bishop and Joe Devera to secure victory in front of 262 Darlington fans and move Quakers up a place to 11th.
Barnet (4-4-2): Cole; Devera, Yakubu, Breen, Lockwood; Adomah, Bishop, Deverdics, Bolasie; Furlong O'Flynn. Subs: Gillett, Porter, Birchall, Tabiri, Kadoch
Darlington (4-4-2): Oakes; Purdie, White, Miller, Fortune; Carlton, Kennedy, Ravenhill, Griffin; Abbott, Hatch. Subs: Kazimierczak, Poole, Barnes, McRready, Riley
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