WHILE Mowden Park's promotion hopes suffered a severe setback on Saturday, Darlington's received a surprisingly healthy lift as all the results in North Division One went in their favour.

They have lost four times, while Mowden's 21-7 home defeat by Doncaster was only their third reverse in National Division Three North.

But Darlington are the better placed after leapfrogging their hosts, West Park St Helens, into third spot with an 18-15 win.

Mowden went through North One with a 100pc record last season and Darlington have taken longer to come to terms with tough trips to Cheshire clubs like Chester and Macclesfield.

Another narrow defeat was looming as a 15-5 lead was wiped out, West Park levelling the scores with eight minutes left.

But on the restart they were penalised for obstruction and skipper David Glendenning found the target from the left touchline. Having been under pressure for 25 minutes, Darlington then held their nerve and dominated the last few minutes.

It could prove a crucial win as, after tomorrow's friendly at Morpeth, Darlington will expect to win their next six league games. The crunch comes in late February and early March when they visit leaders Halifax then entertain Hull Ionians, who are currently second.

With Paul Beattie suffering further hamstring trouble, and Ben Usher and Ian Dobson unavailable, Darlington brought in Tony Taylor on the wing and went to West Park without any backs replacements.

This could have proved costly as Simon White had to go off with an achilles injury in the second half, forcing flanker Martin Howe to move to centre and signalling a switch to the back foot after Darlington had shaded the first half.

But Taylor played his part in a good defensive effort as they hung on and the only real lapses came at restarts.

They went ahead when scrum half Rob Stewart broke from his own half after 20 minutes. What would have been a scoring pass to Frankie Coulson was deliberately knocked on and Darlington drove on from the penalty before slick work by the Lee brothers, Paul and Craig, sent Glendenning on an angled run to the line.

He converted and added a penalty, but on the restart Darlington lost the ball and the home scrum half raced over from 22 metres, making it 10-5 at half-time.

It soon became 15-5 when Paul Lee took a quick free kick, broke up the middle and looped a long pass to Coulson, who squeezed over with a tackler hanging on to him.

A failed clearance kick by Stewart allowed West Park to move the ball left and score, then they went through a gap down the right to score again. But then came Glendenning's superb match-winning penalty.

Mowden have another tough game tomorrow at Scunthorpe and they will be hoping to get player-coach Dave Mitchell involved again soon.

He has been absent for several weeks while undergoing treatment for leukaemia, but appeared on the touchline on Saturday and saw Mowden compete well with a very good Doncaster side until second half lapses cost them the game.

Although the second-placed visitors had a territorial advantage, their former Leicester and England full back John Liley missed two penalties and Mowden led 7-0 at half-time.

But it soon became 7-7, then two tries in four minutes midway through the second half by Doncaster's player-coach Derek Eves, the former Bristol flanker, settled the game.

Mowden drafted in two young Newcastle players in tight head prop James Isaacson and No 8 Phil Dowson. They are on loan from the Falcons until the end of the season and both played their part in some excellent defence in the first half.

While Isaacson, a Durham School product, has played three times for the Newcastle first team this season, 20-year-old Dowson lacks big-match experience and Doncaster may have been tougher opponents than he expected at this level.

Mowden's tinkering in midfield continued as they selected club captain Mick Kent, normally a winger, at centre.

The backs had little chance to show their paces until Kent suddenly burst on to an inside pass from Kevan Oliphant to break down the middle and set up the try which put them ahead after 37 minutes.

Kent found Kevin McCallum on his shoulder and the full back took the pass to score under the posts, Oliphant converting.

Although Doncaster were not short of enterprise, they produced only one piece of real attacking class, which led to their first try four minutes after half-time. It was a double switch in midfield, executed at high pace and sending winger Christopher Conway clear.

His kick ahead came back off a post, which was unlucky for Mowden as scrum half Paul Townsley would otherwise not have scored.

After 60 minutes Isaacson was given a lengthy lecture for illegal use of the foot and the visitors kicked the penalty to touch then drove the line-out 15 metres for Eves to get the touchdown.

Four minutes later Doncaster put in a long clearance kick up the right and there should have been no great danger, but not for the first time Mowden failed to keep possession.

The visitors moved the ball left before recycling it again for Eves, standing off, to take a short pass and step through a big gap for a simple touchdown. Liley added his third conversion.

Isaacson was then replaced by regular tight head Dave Sinclair, while Danny Brown went on for Ian Keeligan.

Flanker Tim Wilks was already on for the out-of-sorts Tony Irwin and, although Mowden rallied a little, there was never any threat of them repeating the previous week's comeback against Tynedale