Darlington Mowden Park will be grateful for the chance to get back to winning ways at home to West Hartlepool tomorrow after their third successive defeat was followed by news of a third defection to Blaydon.

While Mowden were losing 31-24 at home to Liverpool St Helens, full back Kevin McCallum was watching Blaydon beat second-placed Dudley Kingswinford 50-21.

He signed for them afterwards, joining former Mowden team-mates Jonny Golightly and Tasi Tuhana.

Mowden found it difficult to keep Golightly happy with a regular place in the team, while they were resigned to ending Tuhana's four-year stay because he was costing them too much, largely through his occupancy of a club house.

But they will not be happy about losing McCallum, who has been a good club man since joining from Durham City six years ago.

He is very friendly with Tuhana and was apparently unhappy about some harsh words spoken when Mowden's long run of success began to hit the buffers recently.

At least the team gave a spirited performance against Liverpool, who are third in National Division Three North, so there is no reason to believe that the exodus will continue.

Mowden made a good start on their first venture into the national leagues, winning their first four games. But they have won only five of 14 games since.

Their aim for the rest of the season is to stay ahead of Blaydon, who are now one point behind them, and at least Mowden should enjoy a comfortable win against West Hartlepool, who are heading for their fourth successive relegation with only two wins all season.

Mowden switched Danny Brown from prop to replace Tuhana and he performed well, while lock Steve Sanderson was outstanding as the forwards more than held their own.

But they had no penetration in the backs, especially after Richard Woollam went off injured in the first half.

Winger Chris Mattison switched to scrum half and did well, but the well-organised Liverpool defence conceded tries only from close range after heavy pressure.

The visitors led 20-5 after 30 minutes, with Brown scoring Mowden's try from a line-out drive. Then in first half injury time constant pressure allowed centre Mark Bedworth to make it 20-10.

Liverpool kicked a penalty before flanker Tim Wilks ripped the ball out of a maul to score, with Kevan Oliphant's conversion again bringing Mowden within one score.

But the visitors hit back with a try and there were only five minutes left when Mowden were awarded a penalty try after persistent infringement by Liverpool, who completed the scoring with another penalty.

Darlington, who begin their defence of the Durham Cup at Stockton tomorrow, won 42-12 at home to Middlesbrough in North Division One.

With two games in hand, Darlington are four points behind leaders Hull Ionians, whose match at Bradford was postponed.

It was 5-5 at half-time but, after turning round with the strong wind behind them, Darlington quickly went 15-5 ahead, then turned on the style with four tries in the last 15 minutes. After missing the previous week's game, flanker Martin Howe came roaring back with two tries and also made another.

Apart from the fixture backlog, the only cloud on Darlington's horizon is the disciplinary hearing which might result in a ban for Rob Stewart after his dismissal against Macclesfield.

There is a run of tough games coming up and his obvious replacement, David Andrew, will not play again this season because of the arm he broke in the first match. He sees a specialist again at the end of March.

Stewart was a key figure in keeping the pressure off Darlington as they used their superior possession to prevent Boro from gaining a first half lead.

The visitors did go 5-0 up after 15 minutes when veteran lock John Dixon drove over from close range, but when they had the chance to do something similar, Darlington pushed them off the ball.

In between Darlington had come back with a series of pick-and-drives, which created the space for Paul Lee to put Marc Potts over in the right corner.

With skipper David Glendenning resting a groin injury, Potts took the goal kicks and slotted a 45-metre penalty two minutes after the interval. Then Paul Lee's perfectly-weighted inside chip came to rest over the line with Howe racing through unchallenged to touch down.

Midway through the half Potts landed another penalty, then Howe burst on to a short pass from Craig Lee in midfield and scored by the posts.

Five minutes later the livewire flanker broke away up the left touchline from halfway, sold an outrageous dummy to beat one man and passed inside for centre Simon White to score.

Boro managed a brief surge when two quickly-taken penalties saw lock Ian Robinson go over for a converted try, but Darlington responded with late tries by Craig Lee and winger Frankie Coulson.

A good run by improving lock Mark Power set up Coulson's try and Potts added his third conversion from near the right touchline.