Darlington Mowden Park will have to go into tomorrow's tough match at New Brighton without Mark Bedworth, who is the second highest points scorer in National Three North this season.

His 16 points in last Saturday's 29-20 win at home to Kendal took his tally to 64, but he could now be sidelined for several weeks with a pulled hamstring.

A similar injury last season kept him out for a month, so the best Mowden can hope for is to have him back for the visit of Darlington on November 27.

Darlington lost 18-13 at second-placed Macclesfield and, despite again picking up a bonus point for losing by no more than seven points, they slipped back to third bottom.

They need to win at home to Cleckheaton tomorrow and will need someone with better defensive qualities on the left wing than Paul Beattie to contain former British Lion John Bentley.

Player-coach Bentley has also played for the Great Britain Rugby League team and Mowden are likely to turn to an ex-RL man tomorrow in new signing Andrew McNally.

After making his debut the previous week, he had to work last Saturday and was replaced on the wing by Gareth Kerr. One of them will have to take Bedworth's place at centre, unless Tom Lauriston has recovered from injury.

Bedworth's exit ten minutes from time against Kendal almost proved disastrous as Mowden had already sent on all of their replacements.

They were leading 26-3, but the combination of looking for a fourth try to earn a bonus point and being down to 14 men suddenly left them exposed and they conceded three tries in five minutes.

With the gap down to 26-20 there was still just time for Kendal to snatch an astonishing win, but Mowden fly half Michael Georgiou dropped a goal from just outside the 22 with the last kick of the game.

Mowden are short of threequarter cover and the only back they had on the bench was Teessider Stephen Jones, who is with the Newcastle Academy.

With their other three subs already used, they gambled by sending him on for the last 20 minutes and his priority was to help them score the fourth try.

They almost got it when replacement flanker Matthew Wright reached the line from a quickly-taken penalty under the posts, only to lose the ball.

Mowden were lucky to lead 11-3 at half-time as Bedworth scored an interception try from halfway at a time when Kendal were on top.

But powerful Tongan prop Peni Fakalelu made a difference when he went on in place of Dave Sinclair for the second half and they quickly forged ahead.

Shortly after going 26-3 up with 25 minutes left they also sent on Wright and South African lock Naude Pretorius for Tim Wilks and Tanginoa Fosita, who had both played well.

Mowden continued to dominate, but it all suddenly changed when Kendal seized a loose ball 60 metres out and sent replacement winger Luke Laddell racing 60 metres up the left to score.

Two minutes later his brother John, who always looked dangerous on the right wing, finished off a move from similar range after Gareth Kerr was tackled and Kendal swiftly turned defence into attack.

Then they broke again from halfway and good support ended with lock Dave Preston completing the mini try spree, which came as a surprise as the Kendal backs had looked lively in the first half without being able to finish anything off. The extra man clearly made a difference.

After two early Bedworth penalties Kendal were the better side for 20 minutes, but had only a penalty by fly half Dan Stephens to show for it.

They mounted several good attacks and it needed a try-saving tackle in the right corner by Iain Dixon to stop one of them.

Then came Bedworth's interception try and, although he fluffed the conversion, he put in a good tackle straight after half-time then kicked over a 35-metre penalty.

Two minutes later Fakalelu drove powerfully from a line-out and the ball was moved left for Kerr to burst through a tackle on the 22 to score.

Stephens missed a simple penalty as Kendal tried to come back and it looked all over for them when Mowden kicked a penalty to touch and No 8 Matt Holmes was driven over from the line-out. Bedworth's conversion took his tally to 16 points, but his injury turned the game.

Darlington could have done better at Macclesfield as they proved the better side for much of the game after a slow start.

Although full back David Kell struck the ball well, he missed four penalties. But so did the home kicker, and Darlington could not complain about having Dan Oselton sin-binned late in the game with the score 15-13 as Macclesfield had two yellow-carded earlier.

Darlington had to bring in Paul Beattie in place of Marc Potts and he failed to stop his opposite number after the kick-off was dropped and Macclesfield moved the ball out for the right winger to score.

A good conversion was followed by a try from a line-out to make it 12-0 after 16 minutes and it needed a good run by the other winger, Frankie Coulson, to get Darlington going.

A similar thrust ended with the tackler failing to roll away and being sin-binned, but Darlington were denied the chance to take a quick penalty and gave Kell his third shot at goal, which again went left.

They were on top for the last 20 minutes of the first half and Kell finally found the target, only for Macclesfield to reply right on half-time to lead 15-3.

Darlington were right back in it after 51 minutes when, after several phases of recycling within the forwards, Joe Oselton broke through for his brother Dan to score. Kell converted and it was looking good for Darlington when a home lock was sin-binned for pulling a maul down. But despite plenty of pressure there was no further score until Kell kicked a penalty with ten minutes left.

Then came Oselton's yellow card for handling on the deck and, with prop Dan Miller retiring with cramp, Darlington were unable to complete the fightback, Macclesfield making sure of victory with a penalty in injury time.

* Northallerton continued their good home form in Yorkshire Division Three with a 32-5 win against Thornensians. Skipper and No 8 Steve Robinson scored two tries, while lock Jeff Foster and winger Ian Townsend also touched down. The rest of the points came from the boot of Brian Tucker.

Northallerton are at home to Gateshead tomorrow in the third round of the Powergen Junior Vase