Darlington Mowden Park were not happy about their match at Blaydon being called off last Saturday, but at least it gave their battered troops a week off before tomorrow's derby.

They entertain a Darlington side who were left with a number of casualties as they were overpowered by Bradford and Bingley.

The 33-15 home defeat confirmed that the Bees will be among the promotion contenders in National Three North, while Darlington's young side will be more concerned about avoiding relegation.

Although they have proved they can compete with the top sides when at full strength, Saturday's match again showed they do not have the cover when injuries start to take their toll.

They already knew they would be without skipper Paul Lee and his brother Craig for tomorrow's match because of a family wedding and any further absentees will tilt the balance further in Mowden's favour.

Promoted last season, the Bees lost their first three matches at this level, but have now won their last four to climb to fifth in the table while Darlington remain fourth from bottom.

They will hope to have hooker Dan Oselton and flanker Del Lewis back tomorrow, while Mowden expect goal-kicker Mark Bedworth to return after three weeks out with a hamstring injury.

That will allow Tom Lauriston to switch to the wing at the expense of Matthew Brown, who was to have made his second start at Blaydon as Andy Foreman has left to play alongside his two brothers at Hartlepool Rovers.

Despite going 12-0 up in the first 15 minutes against the Bees, it quickly became obvious that Darlington's forwards were up against it. They defended well to keep the margin to 19-15 until they conceded two converted tries in the last ten minutes.

By that stage injuries were kicking in. Paul Lee retired after 50 minutes and young forwards Michael Taylor and Tom Wilkinson had also gone off.

The one consolation was that replacement Matt Dilworth didn't look out of place in his first senior appearance for over a year.

Dilworth replaced Taylor at No 8, which meant 18-year-old James Snowball, deputising for the unavailable Lewis, had to stay on for the full game.

With his brother Richard setting his usual tremendous example in the second row, James worked hard but the pack as a whole struggled against bigger and stronger opponents.

Full back David Kell missed two early penalties for Darlington before they ran one on the 22 and the ball went left then right for winger Frankie Coulson to shrug off opposite number Ben Greaves on his way to the line.

Kell converted and after 15 minutes scrum half Rob Stewart started a good move up the left. An excellent pass from prop Dan Miller put centre Lee Davies away and his inside pass sent winger Marc Potts over.

The visitors then began to take control and when Darlington tried to hit back through driving mauls, which proved so effective in the previous home match against Cleckheaton, they found it very difficult to make progress.

They defended superbly close to the line, but when Bees moved the ball out Greaves took his revenge on Coulson, easily rounding him to score. Two penalties by fly half Tom Rhodes had the gap down to 12-11 at half-time.

The visitors' powerful No 8 Blous Volschenk began the second half with a 50-metre surge and only a knock-on prevented a try. But Darlington were penalised in the scrum and Rhodes put the visitors ahead.

Home flanker Martin Howe then scrapped with Volschenk and was sin-binned after 50 minutes, and while he was off the No 8 again broke off a scrum to send flanker Tula Maakafi racing over.

On Howe's return Darlington threatened to get back into it as Stewart broke from a line-out and Richard Snowball got to within five metres. But, when they set up a maul and tried to drive over, it went nowhere.

They still kept the pressure on sufficiently for Kell to kick a penalty, reducing the deficit to four points with 12 minutes left.

But the Bees came back powerfully, battering away until they got close enough to the line for Greaves to pick up from a ruck and nip over.

The final try was a lucky one as a clearance kick by Rhodes bounced just inside the touchline and sat up perfectly for winger Marcus Dracop, who took it at full tilt and cut inside to race to the posts.

Mowden have questioned why their match at Blaydon was called off at 10.30am on a sunny day because of a frozen pitch.

Blaydon called in local referee John Richardson, who decided that at that stage the pitch was 80pc unplayable.

He rang the official referee, who had just left his home in Hull and, on the strength of what Richardson told him, called the game off.

Mowden's director of rugby John Parkinson said: "There is no suggestion that Blaydon have operated outside the rules, but the league secretary has confirmed that the procedures are designed to prevent unnecessary travel.

"We could have understood it had the opposition been travelling from the Midlands. But we are only 30 miles apart and as the official referee gets his expenses anyway it would have made greater sense for both teams to have awaited his verdict nearer kick-off time."

Mowden were told there would be a pitch inspection at 11.30 and sent team secretary Jim Dyson to witness it. But he arrived at 10.40 to be told the match was off.

Blaydon's explanation was that, under the rules, they had to find a local referee of the required standard to carry out the inspection.

The first one they tried had already left for a match at New Brighton, and Richardson had to fit it in before leaving to referee at Carlisle.

Northallerton's match at home to Bramley Phoenix in Yorkshire Three was also a victim of the frost