Darlington twice squandered the lead as they stumbled to 2-2 draw at home against lowly Barnet on Saturday afternoon.

The hosts took the lead in the 7th minute when on-loan winger Seb Carole crossed from the right and Liam Hatch rose highest to direct a header past Rob Beckwith from six yards out.

Barnet equalised in the 19th minute when John O'Flynn fired a low drive into the bottom corner of the net following Adam Birchall's cross.

Darlington responded with a well-struck shot from Jason Kennedy that was turned away by Beckwith. From the resulting corner Carole sent over another cross that found the head of Hatch and the striker beat the Barnet goalkeeper with an angled header into the far corner.

Two-goal hero Hatch was denied the opportunity of grabbing a hat trick when replaced by Richie Foran in the 74th minute.

The change failed to pay dividends for the hosts as two minutes later Ismail Yakubu headed in Neal Bishop's cross from close range to again level the scores.