Darlington 17 Sheffield 18

IN any previous season winning all but one of their matches in Durham and Northumberland One would have led to automatic promotion for Darlington.

The introduction of bonus points left them one behind Gateshead, whom they beat home and away, and to compound the agony they let victory slip from their grasp in Saturday’s promotion playoff.

It appeared they could survive the loss of skipper and No 8 Andy Hodgkins through injury just before half-time as they forged 17-10 ahead 15 minutes after the break through their third catch-anddrive try.

As all five of their tries in the home win against Gateshead had come via that route it was obvious where their strength lay.

Yet when they were presented with a penalty 30 metres out five minutes from time they opted to go for goal.

As the penalty was 15 metres in from the right touchline, presenting the perfect opportunity for a kick to the corner, arguments will rage long and hard about the wisdom of the decision.

In a match in which the form of both goal-kickers reflected the tension of the occasion, it was a big ask for Nick Baldwin to kick this one and he pushed it right.

It was the 19-year-old fly half’s second penalty miss, to go with two missed conversions, but the Sheffield kicker was off target with four penalties.

He did land two and the fact that he had more opportunities suggests that Sheffield created enough pressure to justify their victory.

They also took advantage of slack defence to score two tries after trailing 5-3 at the interval.

There were two occasions when Darlington failed to deal with an awkwardly bouncing ball near their line and it cost them both times.

First, from a five-metre scrum, the visiting No 8 picked up and the scrum half took his pass and nipped straight through to score.

That put Sheffield 10-5 ahead, but two tries in the next ten minutes seemed to signal that Darlington were on the way to promotion.

Then more dithering near the line led to a penalty, which Sheffield kicked, and with their archaic lock John Dudley, an ex-Rotherham player, returning from a much-needed breather in the sin-bin they took the lead with nine minutes left.

A centre made a break from a move going right and the entire Darlington team committed themselves to snuffing out the threat.

That meant when the ball came back left a visiting prop had a clear run to the line.

Darlington still had time to retrieve the situation and had Hodgkins been on the field perhaps they would have done.

It now remains to be seen whether a player of his quality, along with one or two others, fancies another season of trouncing generally far inferior opponents.