Darlington continued to convince themselves that they can compete in National Three North as they gave third-placed New Brighton a fright on Saturday.

Player-coach Craig Lee, again out of position at full back, scored three tries as they fought back from 32-5 down at half-time. They had the gap down to seven points with five minutes to go, but New Brighton landed two penalties to win 46-33.

Among the younger players, lock Richard Snowball, fly half Dave Haswell and centre Tosh McIntee did well, while Mark Butler again performed admirably as a makeshift flanker and goal-kicker.

With the wind behind him in the second half, one of his three penalties was from just inside halfway, and he added two conversions.

Butler also set up the try of the match after Darlington's midfield defence had twice been breached in going 12-0 down inside ten minutes. It came from turnover ball under their own posts and Butler ran it out up to halfway before Haswell sent Lee over the line.

New Brighton added two more converted tries and two penalties before Darlington used the wind to peg them back in the second half.

Butler kicked a penalty then converted after Lee came into the line to score following good pressure.

Another penalty made it 32-18, but the hosts then scored a try and a penalty before Lee joined a maul, peeled off and was driven over.

Under pressure, a home centre was sin-binned and Butler landed the penalty before Snowball began and finished a move from halfway.

With five minutes left a shock result looked possible, but after landing one penalty New Brighton were on target again with the last kick of the match.

"We let ourselves down in the first 25 minutes," said Lee. "We decided to throw it around in the second half and did that very well. We can take heart from an exceptional second half performance."

After losing to the top two sides, Blaydon cemented fourth place with a 53-7 home win against Dudley Kingswinford.

Replacing first-choice props Dan Harper (groin) and Paul Winter (hamstring) with Sam Walton and George Donoghue, and still lacking lock James Houghton, they were still far too strong for a disappointing Dudley side who were never in the game.

Playing at full back, David Dalrymple twice burst into the line to score and added five conversions and a penalty for a tally of 23 points.

Centre Pete Kilburn and No 8 Peti Keni also scored twice each, Walton got one and Dan Clappison touched down to cap a classy display as a second half replacement for fly half Richard Windle.

Middlesbrough and Horden both reached the fourth round of the Powergen Intermediate Cup, Horden winning 46-41 at home to Blackburn in what was described as the best rugby seen at Welfare Park for years.

Blackburn, second in North Two West, refused to lie down after trailing 34-10 at half-time and 41-15 with 15 minutes to go.

They matched Horden's seven tries, the difference lying in the goal-kicking of Andrew Turner, who landed four conversions and a penalty. Back row men Craig Hall and Andrew Temple, plus winger Chris Purvis, who scored the two second half tries, were outstanding for Horden.

Blackburn scored first, but then a powerful Horden scrummage allowed Hall to drive over from 15 metres. He added a second, while Andy Evans raced home from 70 metres, Michael Thubron scored from close range and Paul Bruce also touched down in the first half.

Blackburn piled on the pressure and spun the ball wide to score their third unconverted try, but Purvis's brace left them with too much to do.

Craig Tait and Ian Dobson, a recent recruit from Darlington, set up the first, then after two tries from Blackburn Purvis scored again.

Blackburn still came back with two converted tries, but the fact they had landed only one previous kick proved costly.

Middlesbrough made hard work of winning 15-10 at home to Aspatria in a game which they dominated.

They led 5-0 after flanker Mark Kerruish was driven over, but they dropped the restart and Aspatria drove on to score. On their only other first half visit to the Boro half they added a penalty to lead 10-5 at the break.

Boro were on top throughout the second half, but there were only 15 minutes left when scrum half Peter Wright chipped over and winger Lee Davies scored his third try in two weeks. Ian Bircham converted and added a penalty to seal victory.

Last year's third team captain Paul Johnson, playing his first game of the season, did well for Boro.

In the Powergen Junior Vase, Northallerton won 18-7 at home to Knottingley, scoring tries through Jeff Foster (2) and Colin Hall, with Brian Tucker adding a penalty.