A late equaliser for the visitors denied the Bucks maximum points and left a palpable sense of disappointment hanging in the moist air of the season’s first genuinely Autumnal afternoon.
Trailing 1-0 at half-time, Kevin Wilkin’s side showed persistence, and their quality eventually emerged, with goals from birthday boy Remi Walker and substitute Jamie Meddows, returning from a two-month injury lay-off.
However, they also showed their tendency to stub their own toes, metaphorically speaking, and when they switched off minutes after Meddows’ goal, substitute Jake Charles levelled.
The Bucks were forced into one change from the starting XI that defeated Darlington seven days earlier. Oliver Cawthorne's booking against the Quakers took him to five for the season, and he served a one-match suspension. That meant a change of shape to a 4-3-3, with Orrin Pendley and Zak Lilly as the central pairing between Matt Curley and Mal Benning.
The visitors went on the attack early on, long throws from either wing testing the Bucks back four.
Hebburn keeper Aidan Harris, on loan from Newcastle United and making his debut, saw an early kick clear from his penalty area strike Louis Moult, but it ran to relative safety.
On a rainy afternoon, the remnants of Storm Austen or the beginnings of Storm Boelo made conditions challenging.
That was evident when Pendley misjudged a header, letting it pass over him, and Josh Donaldson raced onto it and into the space behind; however, he was thwarted as he tried to turn back outside Lilly on the edge of the box.
Hebburn’s Matty Elsdon then cleared to concede a corner at Harris's right post. The corner was cleared initially, returned by Williams from the right, but Pendley couldn't win a clean header. Ryley tried to work the ball for a shot but was denied.
Another nervous moment came when Pendley allowed the ball to run; Brandon Hall had to get a move on to clear and found Ryley, who got the Bucks going forward and Sam McLintock, picking the ball up 30 yards out, moved infield and took a left-foot shot that Harris got his body behind.
Elsdon was involved again soon after and accelerated forward, but his pass went straight to Benning; he released Williams, who charged forward with Walker in support. Elsdon fouled Walker as he retreated, and from the free-kick, just over 20 yards out, Walker brought a low save from Harris at his right post.
Testing Harris on the skidding surface seemed potentially profitable, and Ryley advanced and shot from the edge of the box, but the keeper didn't hold it and grabbed the second attempt.
The Bucks were starting to swing the momentum their way, but after 33 minutes they conceded after an error. The visitors capitalised on Curley's short pass inside the Hebburn half, which was picked off and sent the Hornets to the races. Campbell Darcy advanced on the right, the Hornets found him with a pass, and he drove a low, hard shot across Hall into his bottom right-hand corner.
With a goal to defend, the visitors settled in to protect their advantage. Curley's cross looked to be going out on the wind, but Harris had to paw it out at his near post rather than let it drop. The Bucks couldn't make the most of the corner that followed.
McLintock again tried his luck from distance, with Harris plunging to his right to hold the effort as it bounced up off the wet turf.
In the last meaningful Bucks attack of the half, Benning’s inviting cross cleared before it reached Moult, after Benning initially rode a tackle and was found by McLintock.
With the wind in their favour, the Bucks clawed their way back into the game in the second half.
Pendley was booked for a lunge on Donaldson, but referee Abid Hussain played a good advantage and substitute Matty Cornish advanced, only to be denied by Hall at his near post.
Hall then topped that stop, saving Liam Murray's low, rasping shot from 25-30 yards, diving to his left to put the ball inches past the post.
The Bucks enjoyed prolonged possession but seemed to go nowhere until Lilly advanced, found Moult on the edge of the box, and his layoff to Walker led to a first-time shot, saved by Harris to his right.
Seeking a different approach, Wilkin introduced Jamie Meddows for Moult on the hour, the midfielder having missed close to two months’ action since an ankle injury suffered on the season’s second weekend.
Hebburn captain Aiden Heywood was booked for a lunge on Meddows, but the Bucks’ moment was coming.
In the 71st minute, more play around the penalty area saw Remi Walker celebrate his 24th birthday in style; picking up a short pass from Williams, 20 yards out, he released a superb curling effort that beat Harris to his left.
Hebburn’s plan to sit in and play on the counterattack had worked, although they offered little going forward; what would they do now? Jack Lambert came on for McLintock and immediately got involved with two dangerous crosses, the second earning a corner.
Harris produced a fine stop to deny Lilly’s header at the far post from Benning's deep delivery from the right corner quadrant.
In the 84th minute, the turnaround looked complete as Meddows put the Bucks ahead. The midfielder was located on the edge of the box to Harris’s left, and Meddows stroked the ball with his left foot to Harris's right, a sublime finish that he made look easy when it was anything but. After the lengthy absence he’d endured, Meddows deserved the knee slide celebration in front of the home fans.
A repeat of the previous weekend’s 2-1 victory over another North East opponent looked likely, but the Bucks couldn’t keep the door closed. In the 90th minute, a clearance caught the Bucks too high and left them short of cover; as they almost parted to let the ball through, Cornish sped onto it, and as Hall came out, he knocked it wide to Charles, who turned it into the empty net.
After late joy a week earlier, the gut punch of a late goal left the Bucks feeling as low as they’d been high a week before, and prevented them escaping the bottom four.