TEESSIDER Peter Homan romped over for four tries as Darlington Mowden Park won 43-11 at home to Hull Ionians last Saturday.

After recording back-to-back wins for the first time this season, they will seek to complete a hat-trick tomorrow by repeating last year's win at Fylde.

Mowden are poised to add another Argentinian hooker to their squad as they are not totally confident they have the position covered.

Santiago Socino has been playing there as Newcastle Falcons believe he can be converted from a back row man, but there is always the danger that they might recall him.

Mowden have also tried to convert Simon Uzokwe, who was originally a prop, but when he went on from the bench on Saturday he played in the back row.

Tomas Appleton will be back from Portugal duty to reclaim the full back spot tomorrow after his replacement, Ed Coulson, limped off after 25 minutes against Ionians.

That meant Matt Walsh, who had replaced Bruno Bravo at scrum half in the only change, had to switch after making an impressive start.

He continued to get involved in attacks whenever possible and would have been a candidate for man of the match had it not been for Homan's eye-catching efforts.

The strongly-built 24-year-old winger joined Mowden in the summer after playing in the Championship for Rotherham, London Scottish and Plymouth since leaving Middlesbrough.

His strength as much as his speed allowed him to burst through tackles for two of his tries after taking short passes at pace.

Despite the margin, Ionians competed well in the middle of the game, but Mowden scored two tries in the first eight minutes and three in the last 15. The visitors shaded the intervening period 11-10.

Garry Law converted five of Mowden's six tries and added a penalty to reach 100 points for the season. He also looked very comfortable at inside centre alongside new fly half Warren Seals.

The South African wriggled through two tackles to score the first try from 15 metres, then sent Homan under the posts when the winger appeared outside him on a diagonal run.

Ionians came back strongly, but managed only two penalties before Law replied to make it 17-6 at half-time.

The visitors looked capable of making a contest of it early in the second half, but after nine minutes Mowden capitalised on turnover ball near halfway, moving it left before Seals' inside pass sent Homan under the posts.

A try by the Hull forwards following a penalty to touch kept them in it at 24-11, but they were blown away in the last 15 minutes.

Walsh scooted into the left corner, Law adding an excellent conversion, then an attack up the right saw replacement winger Michael Tait break a tackle to give Homan an easy run-in.

For his fourth he took a short pass on the burst on the 22 to surge under the posts.

Darlington produced their most competitive performance of the season, but are still without a win in Durham and Northumberland One after losing 25-20 at home to Hartlepool Rovers.

Skipper Joe Hargreaves finished forward drives for the first and last tries of the first half, but Rovers scored four in between.

They extended their lead to 25-10, but Darlington kept fighting and were rewarded by tries for Mike Tebbs and Colin Rogers.

Middlesbrough stayed one point behind leaders Durham City when they overcame a very tricky hurdle at Consett, scoring the game's only try four minutes from time to seal a 17-15 win.

Despite a snow-covered pitch, Consett were keen to claim a hat-trick of scalps after beating City and Horden, but they had to rely on the boot of their full back for all their points.

They led 15-6 until, kicking well downwind, Sam Gaudie landed his third and fourth penalties for Boro to reduce the gap to three.

The fly half also had a hand in the winning try when he threw a wide pass to Rhys Kilbride, who made ground before slipping a pass for flanker Liam Wilson to fend off the last defender and score in the corner.

Despite playing into the bitter wind, Stockton opened a 17-0 lead at home to Ryton and went on to win 24-7.

Hooker Ben Cordiner finished a series of pick-and-drives and more powerful work from the forwards produced two tries towards the end of the half for flanker Martin Dixon.

The only score of the second half came when Stockton No 8 Todd Highfield made a break and provided scrum half Jonny Horner with a 20th birthday gift. He scored by the posts for Dan Phinn to add his second conversion.

Northallerton consolidated fourth place in Yorkshire Three with a 36-23 win away to Leeds Modernians. In testing conditions, the pack dominated and the backs defended well.

All the tries came from forwards. J P Coyne scored two and there was one each for Joe Oselton, Paul Dixon, Jonny Baker and Ben Barnard. Jedd Bainbridge added three conversions.

There are no games below National League level tomorrow.