PAST TIMES: Darlington
Last updated : 21 October 2009 By Jaybee
Barnet and Darlington have met each other on a number of occasions. In the football league they first met each other in Division 3 in 1992-93, the year that Barnet won promotion. Darlington won the first match, at home, 1-0. The return ended in a 0-0 draw. The following season, Barnet came straight back down and the fixture resumed in 1994-95. Barnet won 1-0 at Darlington through an own goal, while Darlington won the game at Underhill 3-2, Alan Walker and Mark Cooper scoring for Barnet. There is a report of this match in the Classic Encounter feature on this website.
The following season, 1995-96, the two sides drew at Underhill, in September, 1-1, the Barnet goal coming from Terry Robbins. The return at Darlington also ended 1-1, Sean Devine scoring for the Bees. In 1996-97, Barnet won 1-0 at Darlington, while the game at Underhill ended in a goalless draw. In 1997-98, Barnet did the double over Darlington winning 2-0 at Underhill with goals from Sean Devine and Scott McGleish and winning 3-2 at Darlington thanks to a Sean Devine hat trick. This match will be featured in the Classic Encounter section on the website when we play Darlington at Underhill later this season.
In 1998-99, Barnet did the double over Darlington again, winning 2-0, at Darlington, on the opening day of the season with goals from Darren Currie and Scott McGleish, and 3-0 at home with goals from Stevie Searle, Ken Charlery and Paul Wilson. In 1999/00, Barnet won 1-0 at Underhill, Scott McGleish scoring, but suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat at Darlington.
The following season, 2000-01, Barnet lost 1-0 at Darlington. In the return at Underhill, the Bees won 3-0 with Danny Brown the star of the show, making two goals. Player-manager, Tony Cottee put the Bees ahead losing his marker and rifling his shot home and then after 68 minutes, Brown broke down the left and crossed for Darren Currie to score from close range. Five minutes from time, Brown crossed for Mark Arber to head home to finish the scoring. The Barnet side was; Harrison, Stockley, Flynn, Arber, Goodhind (Pluck), Niven (Gledhill), Gower, Brown, Currie, Richards, Cottee (Strevens). Barnet had been having a lean time of it and had slumped down the table after looking like play-off contenders at one time. Despite the win, Barnet were relegated to the Conference at the end of the season.
Following Barnet's promotion back to the league in 2005, Barnet and Darlington met again just after Christmas at Darlington, who won 2-1. Ben Strevens got the Bees' goal, while future Bee, Tresor Kandol was in the Darlington side. In the return at Underhill, in March, with the Bees desperately needing points in their fight to stay up, Kandol, now a Barnet player, scored a late goal to give the Bees a 1-0 win.
The following season, Barnet having lost the previous weekend, 5-0 at home to Lincoln, went down 2-0 at Darlington at the end of a run that saw the Bees take just 4 points from 9 matches. In the return at Underhill, in March, Barnet won 2-1 with goals from Liam Hatch and Dean Sinclair.
In 2007/08, Barnet lost, rather unluckily, 1-0 at Darlington with Josh Wright missing a penalty. The match at Underhill was goalless.
Earlier this season, the two sides drew 2-2 at Darlington with Liam Hatch scoring both Darlo's gaols against his old club. John O'Flynn and Ismail Yakubu scored for the Bees. Darlington won the match at Underhill, 1-0.
The two sides also met during the 1989-90 season in the GM Vauxhall Conference after Darlington had been relegated from the old 4th division. Barnet won 2-1 at Darlington with second half goals from David Gipp and Gary Poole. The Barnet side that day was; Guthrie, Wilson, Stacey, Poole, Reilly, Payne (Gridelet), Stein, Murphy (Gipp), Bull, Cooper, Bodley.
Darlington won the return at Barnet 2-0 and these points were to prove crucial as they won the Conference title, and promotion, by just two points from Barnet, who were to follow them up to the league the following season.
