Darlington Mowden Park are expecting Tongan Vaha Faleovalu to arrive this week and he could go straight into the team for player-coach Richard Arnold.

A third yellow card in six games for the ex-Newcastle Falcons man will earn him a one-match ban, the consolation being that it comes in a relatively easy fixture away to Dudley Kingswinford.

After losing five of their first eight games Mowden now have a run of four they should win, but for the third time it looks as though they will have to settle for fifth or sixth place in National Three North.

For the second successive week they had the chance to end a 100 per cent record but weren't quite good enough.

Vaha, who was outstanding in the second half of last season, will add to the back row strength, but Mowden are not short of options - it is getting the selection right which is proving difficult.

Fearing the pace of Waterloo's backs, they hoped to match them by fielding four Newcastle Academy players in the threequarters. But what promised to be a fast, open game was nothing of the kind partly because an unsympathetic referee never allowed play to flow.

Leaving club stalwart Tony Irwin on the bench was also a questionable decision and he had to go on for the last half hour as the athletic but fragile Eni Gisende again failed to finish the game.

He lasted 40 minutes longer than centre Armaveer Ladhar, while the other backs saw little of the ball as Mowden struggled to win it against the promotion favourites.

Mowden's defence was excellent, Arnold and Tom McLaren were very influential in the back row, and converted tries by full back Iain Dixon midway through each half had them 7-3 and 14-12 in front.

But Waterloo always looked capable of snatching victory and their pressure led to a clearance by Richard Holbrough being charged down to produce the decisive try in the left corner with 12 minutes to go.

Tony Handley, an experienced fly half who controlled much of the play, converted from the touchline to add to his four penalties.

The first came after five minutes when Dave Sinclair put in a surperb tackle and was penalised for not rolling away, even though he had three players on top of him.

The referee blew for everything, including not straight at the line-out when the non-throwing side had won the ball, and for players getting inches in front of the kicker at restarts.

There was no surprise about Arnold's yellow card as he had received a warning in the first half.

He was sent packing for tackling an opponent off the ball when Waterloo's driving maul was a metre short of the line.

Waterloo could have kicked the penalty to go 15-7 in front, but with the extra man they opted for a scrum, and when they failed to get over they released the ball and Dixon intercepted what would have been a scoring pass under his own posts.

He raced away unchallenged to score with a theatrical dive, Mark Bedworth converting, but just before Arnold returned Waterloo scored.

They were penalised for crossing as a player broke off a driving maul and was about to touch down, but they kept the pressure on and earned their reward.

Dixon's first try came when he took a long pass from Bedworth 25 metres out and glided round an opponent to score

Mowden's tackling looked like keeping them ahead at half-time, but just when their aggressive defence had driven Waterloo back 20 metres they were penalised on the 22 for going in from the side.

Handley slotted the kick and quickly added another following the incident which earned Arnold his first warning.

It was Waterloo's turn to be penalised on the restart for pulling down the maul, but Bedworth missed the penalty and after 55 minutes Handley made it 12-7 for handling on the deck.

Dixon's length-of-the-field try provided a much-needed highlight for all except those rare souls who delight in seeing a referee blowing up at every possible opportunity.

Result: Darlington Mowden PArk 14 Waterloo 19.