Darlington heaped more misery on town rivals Mowden Park with a 28-22 victory in last Saturday's derby at Blackwell Meadows.

Mowden, looking to bounce back from their 5-0 home defeat by lowly Dudley Kingswinford the previous week, found themselves on the receiving end once more in the Division Three North clash.

The single crumb of comfort for the away side was that at least they gained one point for staying within a score of their opponents.

Darlington, who deserved their victory as Mowden scored all their tries against the run of play, opened the scoring after 16 minutes when Frankie Coulson made the most of good play by Richard Snowball.

But the home side conceded a penalty on the restart, with Michael Georgiou converting to reduce the arrears.

A second infringement gave possession to Mowden and they made the most of the opportunity. Good pace and handling through the centres enabled Matt Wright to go in under the posts and Georgiou notched the conversion to put Mowden ahead.

But their joy was short-lived as a penalty from Ben Snook saw the ball land close to the Mowden line and a faultless line-out gave Darlington a solid platform from which the forwards were able to drive over, Dan Oselton putting the ball down to draw the sides level at 10-10.

The teams weren't locked together for long, however, as some good play from Martin Shaw caught the home defence out of position and winger Georgiou burst down the right flank to score and put his side five points to the good at the break.

Darlington started the second half brightly, and Mark Potts and Rob Stewart combined to make good ground inside the 22.

Some good recycling allowed Martin Howe and Del Lewis the chance to force their way towards the line and when the ball reached Snowball he twisted past the Mowden defence to score close to the posts. David Kell added the conversion and then extended the lead to 20-15 with a successful 51st-minute penalty.

Darlington continued to push, but left themselves exposed at the back and when Stewart lost the ball 25 metres out from the Mowden line a four on two overlap saw Mowden race the ball upfield to score through Matty Brown. The conversion was successful, but it was to be their last score of the contest.

With ten minutes left, Darlington began to edge their way into their opponents' half and a 30-metre penalty kick from Kell edged the score back in their favour.

As the game entered injury time, player coach Craig Lee secured a bonus point for his side when he forced himself over from five metres out to put the seal on the victory.

The result left Mowden eighth and Darlington 11th, with both sides facing difficult tests tomorrow.

Mowden are at home to Blaydon, who beat Fylde 25-15 last Saturday, while Darlington visit third-placed Bradford and Bingley, who suffered a surprise defeat at improving Dudley.

* In their rearranged Yorkshire Three league game, Northallerton trounced Bramley Phoenix 37-0.

Northallerton scores came from wingers Ed Pratt and Ian Townsend (two each), Martin Strong, James Reid and Derek Kieloh. Jason Bingley scored a lone conversion