Stockport County saw their chances of automatic promotion ended as Cliff Akurang's 81st-minute header consigned them to defeat at Underhill.
Stockport manager Jim Gannon said a win was an absolute must to keep alive their automatic promotion hopes and, having survived a brief scare when their goalkeeper John Ruddy clawed away Albert Adomah's cross, went on the offensive.
Tommy Rowe spurned a glorious chance to open the scoring when he failed to connect to Ryan Lowe's near-post cross, before the latter repeated the feat when the roles were reversed - as he saw his goal-bound shot from Lowe's cross brilliantly cleared off his own line by Josh Wright.
Nicky Nicolau came the closest for the Bees when his 25-yard shot flashed just past the far post.
Barnet though began the second half in a better frame of mind and were ahead within two minutes of the re-start when Jason Puncheon fired home at the second time of asking - having seen his initial shot from a free-kick hit the County wall.
However, they could only hold the lead for four minutes as Rowe, having been picked out by Stephen Gleeson, expertly lobbed Lee Harrison in the home goal for the leveller.
Both sides felt they had it in them to claim the win, though it was only in the last ten minutes that Barnet went for the kill.
Substitute Danny Hart came close to putting them back in front only to see his shot cleared off the line by County's Jim McNulty, while Adam Birchall forced County goalkeeper John Ruddy into a fine save.
However, with eight minutes left on the clock, Hart was again involved in the action, his inch-perfect cross picking out Akurang who headed home.
