Potters Bar's Josh Urquhart hit a late leveller against Chatham Town

POTTERS Bar Town hit two goals in the last five minutes to rescue a 2-2 draw away at Chatham Town on Saturday.

The draw extended the Scholars’ 2012 unbeaten run to five Ryman League games.

Three wins and two draws in January sees Bar now handily placed just outside the Division One North play-off places in ninth position.

A fairly uneventful first half saw the visitors enjoy most of the possession with little in terms of goal attempts to show for it.

Chatham, coming off the back of three straight home wins, could have been expected to provide more of an attacking threat, but it was not until the 30th minute that keeper Matt Bennett was called into action to make an easy save from Chats winger Gary Tilley.

The first half threat from The Scholars came mainly down the left.

Louis Lavers and Matt Clifford combined well on occasion to trouble the home defence with Bar’s best efforts being blocked shots from Clifford in the first and 27th minutes.

With half-time approaching and both sides looking to go in at the interval on level terms a disappointing piece of defending saw Lee Hales free in the box to send the home side in happy at half-time.

The visitors came out flying for the second half as Rob Magwood played in captain Ashley Harrison-Barker who saw his shot fly wide.

With five minutes of the second half gone Bradley Harrison found space but his effort was covered by home keeper Tim Roberts.

A 53rd minute mistake by Roberts almost set up an equaliser for Bar as a miskicked clearance fell to Elvis Balic but his attempted chip was off target and easily cleared.

Just seconds later Bar’s James Gershfield made his way into the penalty area but was denied by a fine tackle by left-back Jason Barton.

Tilley responded for the Chats breaking away only to be prevented from getting in a shot by an excellent Dan Odamo tackle.

Despite having all the play Potters Bar fell a further goal behind after 68 minutes as Barton found himself unmarked at a corner to convert a free header leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb.

Manager Adam Lee immediately introduced three substitutes with Cole Penney, Fabion Simms and Joe O’Brien replacing Balic, Clifford and Harrison.

But it was not until the 86th minute that The Scholars got back in the game.

A Chatham defender handled in the box with Gershfield stepping up to smash the ball home for his 12th goal of the season.

Straight from the kick-off with Bar pushing forward Lavers almost equalised, but his driven shot was pushed over the bar for a corner.

With time running out it appeared that Chatham would hold on for the win but an injury-time corner fell to Josh Urquhart to drive the ball home and level the scores.

The action was not over though.

As The Scholars pressed forward looking to snatch an unlikely winner, Chatham broke away through Joe Fuller who was only denied by a magnificent last ditch tackle in the penalty area by Magwood as the game neded all square.

Potters Bar Town host Grays Athletic at the South Mimms Travel Stadium on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.