Darlington went from woeful to wonderful as they saw their National Three North lifeline in danger of being severed on Saturday.

They came back from 14-0 down at half-time to record their seventh successive home win and move up one place to sixth from the bottom.

Dudley are fighting hard just below them, winning 18-3 at home to Blaydon, and with Preston Grasshoppers looking doomed it would be a huge help if Darlington could beat them next Saturday to register their first away win.

They will have a difficult choice to make at scrum half as sending on David Andrew for his first appearance of the season for the last 25 minutes made a difference.

Rob Stewart was moved out to the left wing to replace Tosh McIntee and still played a prominent part, but the experienced Andrew's more decisive service helped Darlington to slip into overdrive.

Outgunned by a bigger pack, Darlington were barely in the game in the first half, even when the visitors had two men sin-binned for the last ten minutes.

But with the low sun and breeze behind them, they began to dominate once Mark Butler had kicked a penalty after 50 minutes.

New Brighton were handed a third yellow card for killing the ball under the posts five minutes later, and as Butler slotted the penalty the tide was clearly turning as Andrew went on.

It almost turned back again as New Brighton drove a maul from well outside the 22 to within five metres and kicked a penalty to touch, but they failed to secure clean possession at the line-out.

Darlington repelled the threat and produced 20 minutes of slick, high-speed rugby in which flankers Martin Howe and Andrew Carphin were prominent.

Carphin drove off a scrum on the 22 before the ball was moved left and a good pass from lively full back Graham Haswell sent Stewart sliding over in the left corner.

New Brighton came back with a penalty to lead 17-11, but they made a hash of fielding the restart and a hasty clearance allowed Paul Lee to run the ball back at them.

The forwards drove on and when Craig Lee came off the maul and was held up just short the ball was flipped up for Butler to crash over.

His conversion put Darlington ahead with 15 minutes left and they made sure 12 minutes later when Andrew made a probing run and a long pass from Craig Lee sent winger Frankie Coulson over.

It was a far cry from the first half, when the troubles started with No 8 Del Lewis dropping the kick-off, questioning the wisdom of choosing to play into the sun.

New Brighton applied instant pressure and after the forwards drove almost to the line scrum half Dave Wood nipped over for a converted try.

There was a let-off when the visiting full back dropped the ball with the line at his mercy, but the home pack went backwards at the ensuing scrum and when the put-in was reversed a similar shove allowed No 8 Stephen Bellis to pick up and score easily.

The conversion made it 14-0 after 22 minutes, but it seemed Darlington's scrum troubles might be stemming from an injury to Dan Miller and he was replaced by Paul Shepherd.

After 30 minutes the visitors had a winger and a prop sin-binned in quick succession, one for killing the ball the other after a scrum broke up in a flurry of punches.

Three times in the next ten minutes Darlington kicked penalties to touch and after almost driving over the first time they failed to win the two subsequent line-outs.

Only Richard Snowball seemed able to secure line-out ball and his fellow lock Richie Taylor was replaced by Tom Wilkinson at half-time.

Even with 13 men New Brighton could have gone further ahead, but they missed a penalty just before the interval.

There was no immediate change after the break, but Butler's first penalty quickly followed by the third yellow card and the introduction of Andrew combined to bring about the transformation.

Result: Darlington 23 New Brighton 17.