DARLINGTON Mowden Park continued their poor start to the season with a fifth defeat in a row, handing Wharfedale their first home victory of the season.

Injuries have taken their toll on Mowden, who were more than 20 points behind Wharfedale by half-time, which gave the Darlington side a mountain to climb in the second half, eventually succumbing 45-21 to the Yorkshire Dales outfit.

Mowden, who will return to the Northern Echo Arena next weekend for the first time since September 12, will be grateful for the home advantage after playing away from their home ground owing to New Zealand using the facility as their training base for the Rugby World Cup.

The All Blacks in Darlington has been good news for the town, but Mowden's exile, and a mounting injury problem, has caused problems for a side who started the National One campaign so promisingly by winning their first three matches.

Mowden’s good start in the game came to nought, as a couple of kickable penalties were spurned in favour of a quick tap and one penalty attempt missed by Garry Law, and the home side’s first attack of the game brought the opening points when prop Alistair Wade crashing over, James Guy converting to give the hosts a 7-0 lead.

Guy added a penalty before Wharfedale scored their second try after Mowden skipper Gareth Nesbitt was sin-binned for a technical offence.

Wharfedale took full advantage of the numerical advantage, adding further tries from Max Wright and James Doherty, both converted by Guy.

Mowden came out fighting in the second half and got their first points on the board when hooker Simon Uzokwe burst over the line and Law converted to reduce arrears to 24-7.

But Wharfedale immediately regained their advantage when former Mowden player Nathan Myers went over, converted once more by Guy.

Replacement centre Ben Frankland and Uzokwe scored Mowden’s second and third tries of the game, both converted by Law, gave Mowden a fighting chance at 31-21 but Daniel Tai Sen Choi scored a fine individual try against the run of play.

Matt Walsh was yellow carded for preventing a quick tap penalty resulting in a penalty try for the hosts, easily converted by Guy to complete the scoring for the hosts.

It was similarly tough going for Blaydon, who lost 19-10 at Richmond. Like Mowden, Blaydon have lost five games in a row and sit bottom of National One, a point behind Mowden.

Middlesbrough eased to a 36-13 win over Stockton in their derby at Acklam Park, a victory which sees Boro maintain top spot in Durham/Northumberland One.

Boro have won all six games this season and put out a full-strength team to sweep aside Stockton, who have won all of their home games and lost every single away fixture this season.