Darlington'S 30-27 defeat away to third-placed Tynedale underlined how little there is to choose between all but the top and bottom teams in National Three North this season.

Darlington are fourth from the bottom but have picked up a bonus point for losing by seven points or fewer against all the top three in recent weeks.

On that basis they should have no great fears about next week's visit to Darlington Mowden Park, who are now alone in fourth place after hanging on for a 27-21 win against Rugby Lions, who were alongside them before the match.

But first there are two interesting matches coming up tomorrow with Darlington at home to improving Bradford and Bingley, who are starting to live up to pre-season hype after a 42-5 thrashing of Blaydon. The Tynesiders have slipped to third from bottom and will be desperate to win at home to Mowden this weekend.

The bad news for Darlington is that the highly influential Lee brothers will miss next week's derby because of a family wedding, and last Saturday's game proved they can ill afford to be without key men.

They expected to be unchanged, but skipper Paul Lee strained a hamstring in training, winger Fraser Monohan had a hand injury and hooker Dan Oselton had not recovered from a back problem.

Mowden, on the other hand, are coping remarkably well with their own injury problems. In the face of adversity in the last two weeks, experienced signing Paul Evans has come into his own at No 8, while the two South African newcomers, fly half Michael Georgiou and giant lock Naude Pretorius, are starting to shine.

Five of Saturday's starting line-up were not fully fit, but goal-kicking centre Mark Bedworth should be back next week, if not tomorrow, and when back row man Matt Holmes also returns they will be spoilt for choice.

Faced with finding a new fly half at Tynedale, Darlington had a choice between switching either of their centres, Craig Lee and Lee Davis, or bringing in second team No 10 Ben Snook.

They gambled on Snook, who recently left briefly for Mowden, while David Glendenning came in at centre and Davis moved out to the wing. None of them looked particularly comfortable and the recent defensive solidity was missing as they conceded two soft tries.

They should still have won as, in the first 15 minutes of the second half, with the wind behind them, a 20-3 interval deficit was reduced to three points.

But they lost their way again in a game which never flowed partly because of a finicky referee, who dented their hopes of establishing superiority through the driving maul, as they had in the previous week's thrashing of Cleckheaton.

The referee twice penalised them for offside within the maul, and further contributed towards killing off the second half momentum through his general nit-picking.

Both teams scored three converted tries, but in the kicking duel between full backs Will Massey and David Kell the Tynedale man had more opportunities and clinched victory despite missing a simple penalty.

But the crucial score was the try Tynedale scored ten minutes from time, when the gap was still three points. A centre burst down the middle and his pass allowed the right winger to run round behind the posts.

The match was into injury time when Darlington kicked a penalty to the corner and Joe Oselton was stopped inches short before the ball was whipped out for Glendenning to score.

There was still time to win it, and the pacy Kell ran the restart back at Tynedale, with Davis and Martin Howe keeping the move alive only for a pass to go to ground.

It was the last of several missed chances and left them to rue another slow start, in which they allowed Massey to kick two early penalties before they conceded a soft interception try after winning a scrum against the head.

Darlington quickly looked capable of overhauling the deficit after the interval as they drove a maul, Del Lewis broke off to make good ground and the ball was moved right for winger Frankie Coulson's nicely-angled run to take him between two defenders to the line.

Kell landed a penalty from just inside halfway before Massey replied from under the posts, but the gap was down to three points when Darlington kept recycling and driving until they reached the line. Such tactics looked certain to win them the game, but it was not to be.

Mowden scored two early tries to lead 10-0 against Rugby, but were behind early in the second half before forging ahead again, only to have to hang on grimly during four minutes of injury time.

Evans set up the first try after two minutes when he drove off the back of a scrum and did well to offload for flanker Matt Wright to score.

From the restart the ball was moved out and Georgiou's delayed pass put full back Ian Dixon through a gap to create a try for centre Martin Shaw.

The rest of the first half was scrappy and with the penalty count going 10-1 against Mowden, Rugby kicked three to trail by one point at the break.

Mowden came out strongly again and Dixon kicked a penalty before Rugby went ahead for the only time when they capitalised on poor defence, kicking ahead to score.

Dixon went off for a blood injury after 58 minutes and with his first touch of the ball replacement Matthew Brown kicked a penalty from 25 metres.

Luke Monument did well as a 20-minute replacement for lock Ian Robinson, and another substitution worked well as shortly after Tongan prop Peni Fakalelu went on Mowden won a five-metre scrum against the head and scrum half Richard Holbrough touched down. This came shortly after a powerful run by Tongan flanker Fosita Tanginoa.

With ten minutes left to secure a bonus point for a fourth try, Mowden's forwards drove straight back upfield and when the ball went along the line centre Tom Lauriston stepped back inside and took two opponents over with him.

Dixon converted for a 28-14 lead, but as they came under pressure Mowden had Tasi Tuhana sin-binned after 78 minutes and Tanginoa a minute later. Rugby scored a converted try going into injury time, but Mowden hung on superbly for the remaining four minutes