DARLINGTON Mowden Park head to Blaydon for their final game of the season tomorrow with their lead over their North East rivals cut to one point following last Saturday's humbling home defeat by Old Albanians.

Mowden produced what club officials felt was their worst performance of the season to lose 51-19 in front of crowd of 1,252, who had turned up hoping for a grand finale.

The passion which went into providing such drama in the last two games of last season was sadly lacking and it was clear that only one team needed to win.

Amazingly, what looked a very good Old Albanians side still occupy the third relegation spot and their fate will be sealed if Cinderford take all five points at home to Esher tomorrow.

As in the previous home match against Rosslyn Park, Mowden went backwards in the scrums. Tight head prop Matt Shields has been missed since leaving for Harlequins and his replacement, Darren Fearn, was again ruled out by a calf injury.

Mowden have also declined to select lock Ben Gledhill, who brings some physicality to the pack, since his suspension for punching.

Beefing up the front five is something they will want to address over the summer and it is an area where they are likely to struggle in tomorrow's battle to finish as North East top dogs.

Albanians scored two pushover tries but they were also alert and speedy enough in the backs to grab two interception tries, the first being an 80-metre effort to open the scoring after five minutes That launched them on the way to a 19-0 lead after 20 minutes. The second try came when the fly half stepped back inside and evaded some feeble tackling and the third stemmed from a poor kick by Garry Law.

Mowden did threaten to score inbetween, only to be penalised for not releasing under the posts.

They did get on top in the last ten minutes of the first half, sparked by a punch-up which brought a yellow card for the visiting No 6.

Within five minutes he had been followed to the sin-bin by both locks, who were guilty of illegally halting driving mauls.

The third card was accompanied by the award of a penalty try, which Law converted, and Mowden now had a clear chance to wipe out the deficit. Instead they fell further behind.

A dropped pass handed possession to Albanians, who did what they had to do in hanging on to it until Mowden's frustration resulted in a yellow card for home flanker Callum Mackenzie. The visitors kicked a penalty on the stroke of half-time to lead 22-7.

Mowden sent on Ben Rath, the winger on loan from Rotherham, and a fightback looked probable when he broke through the middle to set up a try for fellow winger George Wacokecoke.

But Albanians turned up the scrum pressure and Mowden were twice penalised before conceding a pushover try, at which point they sent on England Under 18s flanker Joe Craggs for his senior debut.

A half break by Law, well supported by Henry Robinson and replacement hooker Tom Larder, produced a try for Jack Allcock.

With Law converting from wide on the left, the gap was again down to ten points with 20 minutes left, but Albanians were awarded a dubious try from a quickly-taken penalty.

Mowden's attempts to stay in the game left them exposed and they conceded the second interception try as the game ran away from them.

It is fortunate for Darlington that only two teams are relegated in Durham and Northumberland One as they finished third from the bottom after losing 34-21 at Novos.

As was the case for most of the season, no details were made available and it will be interesting to see if ground-sharing with the football club permits remedial measures on the rugby front.

Guisborough clinched their third promotion in six years when they won D & N One, scoring eight tries in a 48-7 win at home to Hartlepool Rovers.

If second-placed Morpeth win their promotion play-off at home to Malton and Norton it is likely that Middlesbrough will be switched to D & N One against their wishes as there is no other suitable candidate.

They finished fourth in Yorkshire One after winning 24-5 at home to Bridlington, despite their frantic attempts to run everything resulting in a lot of handling errors.

Boro were without fly half Simon O'Farrell, who broke a leg and an ankle at York the previous week, and their only first half try came from a pushover, touched down by Matty John.

A good break by Josh Lynas, supported by Euan Tremlett, produced a 50th-minute try for Matthew Todd before Bridlington collected a kick on halfway to score.

Boro's last two tries came from winger Rhys Kilbride, who beat three defenders for the first. His second was an easy run-in from 25 metres after a miscued clearance.

Despite losing the final game 43-10 at Gateshead, Stockton are happy that their youth policy is paying dividends after finishing with 76 points, 36 more than last season. They dominated the scrums and were awarded a penalty try, but Gateshead's speedy backs held sway.

Acklam clinched promotion back to D & N One by winning 57-26 at home to North Shields.

Northallerton finished sixth in Yorkshire Three after winning 20-0 at home to Baildon. Some players were rested ahead of the big cup games to come and others returned from injury hoping to stake their claims.

Iain MacLeod kicked a long-range penalty after 20 minutes, but when James Duggleby was sin-binned ten minutes later North had to defend well for the remainder of the half.

A jinking run by scrum half Pat Hebblethwaite took him over for the second try and with Baildon suffering more injuries than they had replacements North got well on top.

In only his second appearance of the season there were two tries for Tom Rennison, the second being the highlight. A long pass by J P Coyne found Joe Terry, who cut inside past two tackles before delivering a reverse pass for Rennison to score.

North, who have benefited from training by the staff of Zonefitness, visit Whitby tomorrow in the Yorkshire Silver Trophy semi-final before going to Twickenham for the National Junior Vase final on Sunday, May 3.

Former British Lions coach Sir Ian McGeechan is visiting the club on April 28 to watch the training session and give a pep talk ahead of the Twickenham trip, for which coach seats are still available.

On the same night the second team will play Hartlepool with a 7pm kick-off under the new floodlights.