DARLINGTON Mowden Park's run of games against National One's top sides continues with the visit of fifth-placed Plymouth tomorrow.

After successive games against the top three, which brought two wins and a narrow defeat, things are unlikely to be any easier against a side with much to prove.

Relegated from the Championship last season, Plymouth lost four players to Mowden and were beaten 25-15 at home in the November match which began Mowden's run of 12 wins.

Plymouth have been on a good run themselves recently and are four points ahead of Mowden.

The visitors might be surprised to find that none of their quartet who headed for the Northern Echo Arena were in the Mowden line-up which won 14-12 at home to Blackheath last Saturday.

Lock Tom Jubb is believed to be moving on to higher things, which is no surprise given his outstanding form in mid-season.

Prop Tom Harrison is being kept out by Ignas Darkintis and Ralph Appleby, who have shared tight head duties recently, while flanker Ali Bone and winger Peter Homan have been injured.

The growing casualty list forced the Development XV to field a makeshift back division in Saturday's Durham Second Teams Cup win against Stockton.

It also persuaded lock Rob Conquest to play the full 80 minutes against Blackheath, despite having played in England Counties' heavy defeat by a Scotland Clubs XV at Gala the previous evening.

The shortage of backs had seen former Bath Academy winger George Wacokecoke impress in his first outing at fly half for the seconds the previous week and his reward was a place on the first team wing.

He looked dangerous on the few occasions he received the ball in space, but this was a game dominated by defences, with Mowden hanging on in a tense, scoreless second half.

Like the previous home game against Hartpury, it was decided by the superior goal-kicking of Warren Seals.

The fly half had only two shots at goal, but nailed both conversions from wide out, while the division's leading points scorer, Freddie Gabbitas, missed a conversion and penalty he would normally expect to kick.

Mowden could have extended their lead when they were awarded a penalty 10 metres from the posts with three minutes left.

There would still have been time for Blackheath to snatch victory with a converted try, so Mowden opted to go for the corner, only to fail to secure the ball from the line-out.

But they kept tackling tirelessly to ensure that Blackheath were unable to break out, having added only one try to the close-range one which gave them an early lead.

Mowden's tries came after 22 and 26 minutes in a dominant period sparked by a powerful burst from Simon Uzokwe.

When he was stopped just short, Mowden's attempts to get over were illegally thwarted by the visiting No 8, who was yellow-carded.

Half of his time in the bin was frustratingly taken up by a series of scrums and, as Blackheath kept transgressing, there was a case for a penalty try.

The referee further angered home fans by blowing for a penalty as Mowden scrum half Matt Walsh was nipping over for a try. But at the next scrum, No 8 Ollie Hodgson sent Walsh over.

Good handling set up the second try for winger Jamie Barnard, who didn't look to have much space, but skilfully stepped inside a tackle on the 22 to race over.

Blackheath replied three minutes before the break after their scrum half was allowed to break through. Centre Chris Auld's prevention of the try earned him a yellow card, but the visitors scored from the ensuing scrum. Gabbitas' conversion surprisingly completed the scoring.

Darlington became the first club in the country to concede 1,000 league points this season when their best chance of a win, at home to Ponteland, brought a 19th straight defeat.

As usual, the Darlington pack competed well and they led at half-time before defensive deficiencies kicked in and Ponteland pulled away to win 28-14.

Darlington visit Horden tomorrow, while Middlesbrough's pursuit of promotion sees them stage a derby against Acklam following a week off.

It is now virtually certain that Barnard Castle will leapfrog Darlington in the league structure after a hard-earned 7-3 win at Hartlepool, their chief rivals for promotion in Durham and Northumberland Two. Barney are now two points clear with two games in hand.