DARLINGTON Mowden Park head coach John Newton wants his troops to keep playing with smiles on their faces as they bid to get one over Birmingham & Solihull this weekend.

Newton’s men enjoyed their biggest win of the season last time out as they ran in 14 tries in an 86-7 demolition of Dudley Kingswinford.

This was Mowden’s fourth win on the bounce and makes the opening day defeat at the hands of Macclesfield seem like a distant memory.

Saturday’s opponents Birmingham & Solihull have found life in SSE National Two North much trickier this term and have won just two of their opening five clashes, going down 22-15 to Luctonians last time out.

And while Newton is fully aware of the threat that the Bees pose, he believes that the positive mood in the camp can see his side stretch their unbeaten run that little bit further.

“Birmingham, with them coming down from the Championship over the last few years, they’re a bit on a rebuilding process and I think last year was a bit about that really,” he said.

“But they’ve come together as a squad, they’ve got Matt Long in there and I think they are good team, a very good defensive team, they organise very quickly so we will have to be clinical when we come up against them.

“We will look to build on our performance last time out. We will keep the enjoyment going, we’ve got a lot of young lads and they’ve all been enjoying it so we’re not going to put pressure on them about the league, we just take every game as it comes.

“If we enjoy it we will perform, so it’s not about putting pressure and targets on them at this moment in time.”

Mowden Park visit Birmingham & Solihull boasting the best attack in the league, having scored 226 points and conceded just 87 in reply.

And Newton has bad news for the rest of SSE National League Two North, insisting his side are only going to get better.

“We’ve had a good start but we are not taking anything for granted, that first game against Macclesfield taught us that,” he added.

“We are still a bit light in terms of numbers as we have a fair few players still out injured and we haven’t been at full strength even once so far this season.

“But we should be back to full capacity in the near future and when we do we will obviously be stronger and better for it.”

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