Darlington failed to reproduce the form which won the Durham Cup and earned another crack at the national event, but at least they scrambled over the first hurdle this time.

They now hope to go one step further in the Powergen Cup in a home match against West Hartlepool on Saturday, and will then be away to New Brighton.

West, who have lost a couple of players and struggled in their recruitment, are unlikely to provide such tough opposition as Darlington's North Division One rivals West Park.

The St Helens club were looking likely winners at 20-11 up early in the second half.

Darlington sent on the Osleton brothers, Joe and Dan, in the front row and fought back to level at 23-23 with 12 minutes left.

But they were harshly penalised for crossing and fell behind again, and were still trailing when scrum half Rob Stewart broke away in the 79th minute.

When he chipped ahead he was poleaxed by Chris Myers and Darlington kicked the penalty to touch and set up a line-out drive for Dan Osleton to score.

In injury time winger Paul Beattie raced 30 metres for his second try after taking a quick line-out throw and receiving the ball back from Dan Miller.

Lord Reeth rarely lectured as long as the Manchester referee in this match, but he failed to police it adequately and there were three flare-ups in a fiercely-contested encounter.

After seeing an early 11-3 lead reduced to 11-8, one of Darlington's best moves ended with winger Frankie Coulson being tackled round the neck as he tried to step inside the last defender.

Craig Lee was somehow singled out for his part in the mayhem which followed and shown a yellow card, with the penalty being reversed.

That proved a turning point as West Park scored from a driving maul to lead 15-11 at half-time and shortly afterwards fly half Neil Ryan scored their third try when the ball bounced awkwardly for Darlington's new full back Paul Heslop.

Darlington responded with a good attack up the right and after they were held up from a tap penalty the ball was recycled for Stewart to dart over from two metres.

The county captain then had to put in a try-saving tackle before Darlington were awarded a penalty near the line.

Joe Osleton drove on before the ball came back for centre Mark Butler to burst over on an angled run.

West Park went back in front through Andy Roberts' second penalty before Darlington staged their grandstand finish.

It had looked like being a stroll early on as Heslop coolly chipped over two penalties and Beattie stepped round his marker to score in the corner.

But Heslop's kicking deteriorated and he converted only one of the five tries, while his general play combined elements of his excellent pedigree with signs that he had also played for Consett.

This was a serious early work-out for Darlington and they will be the better for it when they visit West Park in a league match in two weeks.

First they face West, which will create an instant fixture backlog as it clashes with the first league match.