WHAT a difference half a season makes.

Blaydon beat Darlington 34-18 in the Powergen Cup in early September, but their powerful pack was out-manouevred by the superbly-drilled and committed home eight in the second half of Saturday's National Three North match.

It was a fifth successive home win for Darlington, for whom there were two tries from Irish flanker Andrew Carphin, a Newcastle University graduate who now teaches at the city's Royal Grammar School.

As he prepared to drive Carphin to the airport afterwards for his flight home for Christmas, player-coach Craig Lee said: "The secret is our defence.

"We are stopping teams from scoring and we are not turning the ball over as much. We needed time to find our feet at this level, but the players are showing commitment and as long as they are prepared to put themselves on the line for the team then things fall into place.

"We are playing very well at home, now we have to try to find some consistency away from home."

After their poor start, Darlington are by no means out of the woods and remain fourth from the bottom. But some of the teams above are on the slide and Blaydon will be anxious to halt a run of six defeats in eight games.

Blaydon trailed only 8-7 at half-time and could have been ahead, but they barely raised a canter in the second half.

They were on top for the first 20 minutes, but their recent struggles to convert pressure into points continued. Injuries have persuaded Director of Rugby Nick Gandy to play himself at centre, but while there was no spark in midfield this was a match they would have expected to win up front in the wet conditions.

However, their powerful props met their match in Dan Miller and Joe Oselton, skipper Dave Guthrie had a quiet game and they missed flu-ridden Matt Cook at open side.

Although Shaun Cassidy and Peti Keni were prominent in Blaydon's back row, the Darlington trio had the edge, scoring all three tries as No 8 Del Lewis touched down between Carphin's two catch-and-drive efforts.

Blaydon found themselves on the receiving end of Darlington's technically superior rolling maul, which led to the first points after 21 minutes.

Martin Howe broke off a scrum and winger Frankie Coulson took play into the visiting 22 for the first time.

The forwards drove almost to the line and Mark Butler kicked a penalty.

Five minutes later Miller and lock Richard Snowball made 30 metres down the middle, Darlington kicked a penalty to the corner and Carphin was driven over.

Blaydon came back with a good try when Darlington lost the ball near halfway. The visitors quickly moved it right then left and Keni slipped it inside for hooker Sam Walton to charge over, with David Dalrymple converting.

Both teams missed a penalty, Dalrymple's being the easier one as he failed to give Blaydon a half-time lead they just about deserved.

But they gradually faded from the game after the break as first Tosh McIntee then jinking full back Graham Haswell made deep inroads and fly half Craig Lee kept pinning them back with grubber kicks to the corners.

After 50 minutes Lee attacked the narrow side and cleverly slipped a pass behind his back for Lewis to shrug off two tackles to score from ten metres.

Then Carphin scored again after Darlington piled most of their team into a maul and drove over from a line-out 15 metres out.

Butler converted and when another catch-and-drive was stopped just short there was a brief fracas and Blaydon were penalised at the ensuing scrum.

Butler kicked the penalty to complete the scoring with 15 minutes left.

Any chance of a Blaydon comeback ended when, amid increasing signs of losing their composure, they had hooker Sam Walton sin-binned.

Darlington will have skipper Paul Lee back for the next match at Tynedale in two weeks, but Dave Haswell could be out for the season and it was encouraging that his brother, Graham, did so well at full back.

Result: Darlington 23 Blaydon 7.