AFTER snatching a draw with the last kick the previous week, Mowden's new fly half Josh Bragman proved the match-winner in Saturday's derby.

Blaydon won the try-count 3-2 and were pressing again at the end, but their only successful kick was a conversion from under the posts.

Bragman landed four penalties, two of them from longer range than the two Brett Connon missed for Blaydon when they were leading 7-5. He finally handed over to Andrew Baggett, who made a hash of the final conversion.

There was little to choose between the sides in a typical derby, which was hard-fought but lacked sparkle.

As defensive structures filter down from the top level, the running rugby which was still prevalent in Mowden's first season in National One is dying out.

Blaydon centre Tom Small made two clean breaks in the first half, but failed to find support and lost the ball. Otherwise their only hope of breaking down the excellent Mowden defence was through forward drives.

It was surprising that they let the ball out at all in the second half as they desperately needed to win.

A losing bonus point was of little use as they are now 12 points shy of safety and when they resume on January 7 a tough trip to Loughborough is followed by the visit of second-placed Moseley.

On this evidence, their eight-year reign in National One is about to end. They prospered when their stalwart forwards were at their peak, but now the sell-by date is looming and it didn't help that tyro prop Andrew Foster had been whisked away by the Falcons.

For Mowden, Talite Vaioleti continued to repay the club for looking after him during his long injury lay-offs and hooker James Penman was also prominent.

He took a strike against the head when Mowden responded quickly to being driven backwards at the previous scrum.

It enabled them to attack up the left and build the pressure until a chip over the top produced a try for scrum half Maia Gibbs.

Mowden generally succeeded in countering attempts at catch-and-drive, but when Blaydon managed to set up a maul 15 metres from the posts they drove over for Matt Thompson to touch down the first of his brace.

Connon's conversion put them ahead, but then came his two penalty misses and when Bragman struck in added time following a break by Chris Auld Mowden led 8-7 at the break.

Blaydon survived the first ten minutes of the second half without sin-binned No 8 Gavin Jones, but then shot themselves in the foot.

They shipped the ball out to the left flank, lost possession and Mowden winger Joel Gill shot away. He made 50 metres before finding Jamie Barnard in impressive support and the full back raced over wide on the right.

Bragman's conversion made it 15-7 and Mowden sent Simon Uzokwe into the back row for his first appearance of the season.

He didn't need to make a big impact as Bragman's penalties kept Blaydon at bay. They managed two more tries through the forwards and were left to reflect that they could have won both derbies. Losing both has left them in a perilous position.