BLAYDON emerged from a mauling, brawling encounter with their National Three North promotion hopes intact, while Darlington will lick their wounds ahead of Saturday's match at Mowden Park.

They will be without flanker Martin Howe, while skipper Paul Lee could also be a doubt after soldiering on for 70 minutes with a heavily-strapped knee.

Howe was helped off with damaged ankle ligaments after a massive brawl midway through the first half.

He had been knocked back by a thunderous, but legal, tackle from Sua Segi, which seemed to spark the fight, and given that most of the 30 players were involved Blaydon lock Dave Whitehead may have been unlucky to be singled out for the sin-bin.

It must have counted against him that he and home hooker Rob Goddard had already been spoken to after an earlier scrap and during Whitehead's absence Darlington turned a 6-0 deficit into an 8-6 lead.

After seeing an early kick blown back to them, they played the right tactics into the strong wind, taking quick penalties and keeping it tight through pick-and-drive and setting up driving mauls.

Although Blaydon fly half Dan Clappison kicked two more penalties to add to his earlier efforts for a 12-8 lead at half-time it didn't look enough.

But with skipper Dave Guthrie leading from the front, Blaydon copied Darlington's first half tactics and could have won more easily as they got on top in the last ten minutes and looked to have scored a try.

Full back Dan Graney followed up his own chip from the 22 and appeared to touch down after the ball bobbled unkindly on the line for David Andrew. But a touch judge indicated that Andrew got a hand on the ball first.

Darlington took a quick drop-out and swept upfield in a last, desperate bid for victory, only for Craig Lee's drop goal attempt to fall just short.

Blaydon certainly knew they had been in a fight against a side determined to make amends for losing 50-8 at Crow Trees in December.

The power of the Segi brothers, Guthrie and prop Justin Clarke gave the visitors a muscular edge, but young forwards like the excellent Michael Taylor and Stuart Palmer underlined their growing maturity for Darlington and prop Paul Shepherd stood up to everything which was thrown at him.

Both these teams have picked up 14 four-try bonus points this season, but with conditions not conducive to running rugby Darlington scored the only try on Saturday.

It stemmed from a burst by Taylor and there was a case for a penalty try as Blaydon went to ground when a maul had been driven 15 metres almost to the line. But Darlington whipped the ball out for right winger Frankie Coulson to score.

The visitors were unable to generate any downwind momentum as they often kicked too long and were guilty of some poor passing. Nor were they helped by the stop-start nature of the contest prior to Whitehead's yellow card.

It came when Darlington took a quick penalty 15 metres out and Howe was hit by Segi five metres from the line. It took two minutes to settle things down, then Howe was replaced by Del Lewis and Craig Lee kicked the penalty from under the posts.

With full back Lee Davies injured, Darlington went into the match without a recognised goal-kicker. They handed Newcastle Academy flanker Phil Dawson the No 15 shirt and also gave him two shots at goal in the second half.

He pulled the first wide but landed the second from 40 metres and with the gap down to one point with 25 minutes left Blaydon were up against it.

But they were determined that their promotion bid was not going to end here and had enough seasoned campaigners to prevent Darlington mounting any sustained pressure.

It promises to go to the wire for Blaydon and their final match at Tynedale on April 22 should provide quite a climax.

To have any hope of finishing top Blaydon needed Tynedale to beat Bradford and Bingley on Saturday, rather than draw, and a promotion play-off still looks their best bet, with a trip to either North Walsham or Cambridge on the cards.