DARLINGTON Mowden Park will have skipper Gareth Nesbit back for tomorrow's home match against Fylde after he missed the last two games with a neck injury.

With no match last Saturday, the loose head prop had a further week to recover and was able to concentrate on helping to organise a charity match against the Gorillas.

Arranged as a curtain-raiser for Newcastle Falcons v Wasps, it gave several Mowden players the chance to play at Kingston Park and and raise money for the 1820 Foundation.

The Gorillas are the Foundation's rugby team and their chief purpose is to help ex-military personnel who are struggling to make the transition to civilian life.

Nesbit is heavily involved and has played for the Gorillas in the past, while they also draw players from the Catterick-based 32 Engineer Regiment.

Mowden took the opportunity to have a look at some Barnard Castle players after forging a strong link with the club, who are on the verge of clinching promotion from Durham and Northumberland Two.

Ex-Mowden men Luke Monument, Junior Fagalilo and Chris McTurk have helped Barney to go through the season with one defeat. Their players in the Mowden squad on Sunday were Adam and Lucas Kicks, Tom Hunter, Tim Mackey, Josh Waldren and Jamie Preston.

“We won comfortably, but it was more about raising money and giving everyone a good run-out,” said Mowden's director of rugby Danny Brown.

“I thought about putting the boots on myself, but in the end decided to spare the rest of the lads that embarrassment.”

Brown expects to have other players back from injury tomorrow, including Italy A flanker Luca Petillo, who has signed to stay for a second season.

“Luca has shown outstanding commitment even when injured,” he said. “He is a destructive tackler and is developing hugely as a player. We are looking forward to working with him again.”

Lock Rob Conquest and winger Peter Homan could also be fit to return and Brown added: “I have never known anything like it injury-wise. We had 22 backs at the start of the season and before the last game at Hull we were down to seven.

“We have spoken about how we finished last season on a very flat note and we are determined to go out on a high this time. We have five tough games left, but we can win them all and finish in the top six.

“Fylde are in mid-table with nothing to lose and they will probably want to chuck it around, so it could be a very entertaining game.”

Darlington have four games left in which to find their first win of the season, starting at Hartlepool Rovers tomorrow.

Middlesbrough entertain Consett and must hope that Durham City slip up at Horden if the battle for the automatic promotion spot in Durham and Northumberland One is to go to the wire.

Boro bowed out of the Yorkshire Shield last Saturday, when a lack of replacements forced them to forfeit their home tie against Keighley after 10 minutes.

The match was played to a conclusion, finishing in a 31-31 draw, but Keighley go through.

Boro were without several key players as they had expected a free day, only for the Yorkshire RFU to insist the postponed match must go ahead.

Two front row players withdrew on Saturday morning and when a third was sin-binned, the absence of a front row replacement dictated the outcome.

Boro had colts Lewis Allan and James Pennington in the pack and Joe Gaudie making his first start at fly-half. They all acquitted themselves well, with Allan scoring two of Boro’s four tries.