FOR a second week in a row, Darlington Mowden Park were on the wrong side of a one-point margin as they went down 32-31 to Cambridge at the Darlington Arena.

However, this weekend's game was in stark contrast to the Bishop's Stortford defeat one week earlier, with Mowden coming close to pulling off a remarkable second-half comeback.

Unlike the previous weekend, when Mowden sped to a 17-0 lead, this time it was the visitors who opened up a big lead in the early stages of the game.

Cambridge enjoyed the lion's share of possession early on, and took the lead on 12 minutes when their number eight, Anthony Maka, profited from a driving maul.

A brace of Stef James penalties stretched the lead to 13 points, before Matt Minogue got Mowden on the board off the kicking tee.

Things got even better for the visitors soon after, with another driving maul setting up winger Kwaku Asiedu for his first of two tries on the day.

Darlington grew into the half, but were unable to narrow the 20-3 gap by which they trailed at half-time.

In similar fashion to the trip to Hull a fortnight ago, Mowden came alive in the second half - crossing for four tries.

First, Liam Checksfield sprinted over in the corner, before a Rian Hamilton try kept the Cambridge scoreboard ticking.

The lively Chris McTurk then weaved his way over on his return to the Mowden side, before Morgan Passman scored in trademark style for the home side's third try.

Ali Ledingham converted to narrow the gap to just one point, but once again, Cambridge hit back almost immediately through Asiedu.

Max Fraine finished off a flowing Darlington Mowden Park move to set up a grandstand finish with five minutes to play, but Cambridge saw the game out well to claim a one-point success.

Mowden took two losing bonus points from an end-to-end game, with Joe Craggs awarded the Man of the Match honours after a strong all-round display.

Mowden will take the positives from a strong second-half comeback, and return to action when they travel to Rams this weekend. Their next home outing will see them host Rosslyn Park on October 15.