WHILE Darlington did well to draw at home to second-placed Macclesfield last Saturday, Mowden Park lost 32-7 at Kendal and results elsewhere left them among five clubs embroiled in a tight battle to avoid the third relegation spot in National Three North.

Not that the bottom two have given up, as Bedford Athletic proved by winning 30-18 at home to Fylde, who visit Yiewsley Drive tomorrow in a match Mowden must win.

If they lose, the omens will not be good for their own trip to Bedford next week and the alarm bells, silenced by the win at Blaydon, will start to ring again.

Darlington visit leaders Halifax tomorrow, where defeat will probably drop them into third bottom spot below Cleckheaton who, after last week's win at Blaydon, can be expected to win at home to Rugby Lions.

Both Blaydon and Rugby are also in the mire with three points covering the five teams. Rugby and Mowden have played a game more than the others.

Whatever the league table shows tomorrow night, there should be no cause for alarm at Blackwell Meadows based on the quality of rugby in the fightback from a 10-0 half-time deficit to earn an 18-18 draw against Macclesfield.

On that evidence Darlington should win their four remaining home games, while at least two of their rivals will do well to win three.

Full back David Glendenning again provided the inspiration, scoring the first try and providing perfect passes for right winger Frankie Coulson to race in for the other two.

This was a tremendous second-half effort as Macclesfield have the best defensive record in the division, having previously conceded only 25 tries all season.

Darlington have consistently shown they can score tries, but goal-kicking remains a problem despite signing four potential kickers last summer.

The first choice, Andrew Turner, stayed only a few weeks before returning to Horden and since then David Kell has shown himself to be a reasonable striker, but has only a 54pc success rate. He missed a fairly straightforward penalty when the score was 3-0 on Saturday and unfortunately all the conversions from wide on the right into the crosswind.

He did, however, land a nerve-racking 30-metre effort to put Darlington 18-15 ahead with seven minutes to go, only for the visitors' Mike Newell to reply from a similar distance as they fought back strongly.

Their right winger, Mark Frost, almost completed a hat-trick of tries just before the equalising penalty, but after his kick ahead dribbled over the line, Rob Stewart just beat him to the ball.

The draw was a fair result in an excellent game and, as Darlington lost by only five points at Macclesfield, it suggests they need only a little more strength, or a goal-kicker, to challenge at the other end of the table.

Newell's first penalty came after ten minutes, but Darlington could have gone ahead when they drove a line-out ten metres and the maul was pulled down two metres short. As there seemed little doubt they were going to score, there was a clear case for a penalty try.

They kicked the penalty to touch and, when their next drive was again illegally stopped, a Macclesfield prop was sin-binned.

But the visitors summoned the will power to repel the pressure and their strong and well-organised forwards dominated the second quarter, when they could have had more than a converted try.

Their use of decoy runners created a hole in the home defence when, with the ball going left, Frost came off the right wing to appear at pace in the centre and go under the posts.

Darlington held out well until half-time then re-emerged full of purpose. A penalty to touch was followed by a powerful drive and when the ball was moved to the short side Glendenning did well to breach a strong defence, finally spinning out of a tackle to score.

Darlington tried to run the ball on the restart, only to lose it and allow Macclesfield to launch a good attack which ended with Frost scoring again, this time appearing on his opposite wing.

There was no let-up in the end-to-end action as home fly half Paul Lee, who had a very sound game, set in motion some slick handling which ended with Glendenning's nicely-delayed pass giving Coulson a 20-metre run to the corner.

With the score 10-15 and 25 minutes left, Darlington sent on Fijian Joe Naga at blind side, with Michael Taylor switching to lock.

Joe Oselton had gone on five minutes earlier for loose head prop Paul Scott, and both replacements showed the value of the growing strength in depth.

Naga put in a lot of tackles which helped to keep Macclesfield on the back foot, and it was his pick-and-drive which sparked the move which levelled the scores.

It was a superb move with the Lee brothers, Paul and Craig, working a clever loop before Glendenning took the ball at pace and floated a long pass out to Coulson. The winger still had a bit to do for his previous try, but this time he had a simple run-in.

Darlington began to scent victory and when they were awarded a free kick then a penalty, lock Richard Snowball twice drove on to set up the position from which Kell kicked his penalty.

Macclesfield came back impressively and after Stewart got back to deny them a try Darlington could not feel too aggrieved about the equalising penalty.

Following the previous week's win at Blaydon, Mowden stepped on to the Kendal quagmire full of confidence.

They had scrum half Shaun Richardson and centre Matt Howland back after injury, but first-choice locks Ian Robinson and Naude Pretorius were ruled out, so Fosita Tanginoa partnered Luke Monument.

Flanker Jason Smithson again played well, as did winger Tom Lauriston and hooker Tasi Tuhana, as Mowden dominated the first half with the wind behind them.

Monument also did well until being forced to retire just after half-time with a knee injury.

But overall it was a disappointing display as several tries were conceded through poor defence and one through two players leaving a desperate Kendal kick out of defence to each other.

The scoreline flattered Kendal as the persistent interference of a touch judge ensured that the penalty count was 22-5 against Mowden.

The penalty count in the first half was 14-1, which partly explained why Mowden trailed 10-0 despite dominating.

Kendal scored a converted try the first time they broke out of their own half after 25 minutes, then broke out again and added a penalty.

The rest of the game was scrappy and when Mowden did manage a spell of good rugby it ended with the high kick by Kendal, which Howland and Michael Georgiou both went for only to leave it to each other. The ball sat up kindly for a Kendal player to race in from halfway.

That was one of three second-half tries as the score reached 32-0 before Lauriston and fellow winger Peter Phelan launched an attack from behind their own line in the 79th minute.

Martin Shaw and Iain Dixon also handled before Lauriston featured again, then Tuhana put a grubber kick through which Smithson followed up to score, with Dixon converting.