DARLINGTON Mowden Park's appalling luck with injuries continued last Saturday when Brandon Staples limped off after five minutes of the 31-25 defeat at Fylde.

The catalogue of casualties has been particularly severe in the back row, with Staples becoming the third No 8 to be crocked in two weeks.

David Fisher broke his ankle the previous week, when his replacement Rory Duff also succumbed, having filled the slot for most of the season since skipper Ollie Hodgson was injured in the second match.

Front row man James Penman, who took over the captaincy, will be back from suspension for tomorrow's visit of once-mighty Coventry.

But fly half Warren Seals' three-match loan from Yorkshire Carnegie has ended, so there will be a new half back pairing tomorrow following the arrival of New Zealander Mia Gibbs on trial.

He replaced knee injury victim Tim Duchesne at Fylde, where Mowden led 19-14 early in the second half but were unable to add a fourth try and had to settle for a losing bonus point.

A poor kick out of defence allowed Fylde to score the opening try, but Mowden hit back swiftly and, after several midfield phases, centre Ben Frankland scored.

Seals then dummied over and his second conversion had the scores level at 14-14 before winger Jamie Barnard crossed for Mowden early in the second half following good inter-passing.

Fylde came back with two tries and Mowden could only respond with two Seals penalties.

Stockton underlined that they are the form team in Durham and Northumberland One by winning 24-13 at Barnard Castle, who lost top spot to Westoe.

Beaten at Stockton the previous week, the South Shields club bounced back with a 38-0 home win against Middlesbrough.

Since losing their first six matches, it has been a remarkable turnaround for the young Stockton side, who survived intense pressure at the start of both halves.

In the end, home errors allowed Stockton to overturn a 13-12 deficit with two tries by centre Jonny Horner in the last 12 minutes.

The first was sparked by a brilliant counter-attack from full back Danny Phinn from near his own line. He reached halfway before sending Horner over and the centre appeared on the overlap again with two minutes left.

Flanker Jonny Cheetham and lock Steve Taylor drove over for Stockton's first-half tries, while Barney kicked two penalties and were awarded a penalty try when a maul was pulled down.

Darlington were without a game in Durham and Northumberland Two, but return to action at home to Blyth tomorrow.

In a clash of two big packs, Northallerton won their Yorkshire Three match at home to Wensleydale 14-5.

Much of the action appeared to be a battle of brawn over brain, but North took control of the first half thanks to some excellent kicks to touch from Jedd Bainbridge, keeping the visitors pinned in their own half.

His kicking was the deciding factor because, as well as landing three penalties, his kick to touch led to North's try from a line-out, with Simon Manthorpe touching down for his eighth of the season.

Dale achieved their only score with a try out wide, which was gifted to them by a fumble by North on their own line.

Bainbridge kicked two straightforward penalties for an 11-5 half-time lead and the second half was a much tighter affair. Both teams failed to make any significant yardage, especially when the ball was shipped out wide.

North suffered a couple of irritating injuries to forwards Paul Dixon and Jacob Sankey, who will both hopefully be fit for tomorrow's trip to Goole.

It was left to Bainbridge to cap his man of the match display with another penalty to seal the victory.

The second team had only 13 players for the third successive week for their match at Acklam. But they put in a sterling performance to win 31-17.

The tries came from Lewis Haigh (2), Trevor Mould, Matty Wheeler and his younger brother Lewis, making his debut.

Mould added two conversions before suffering a foot injury.

The seconds hope to return to full numbers at home to Thirsk tomorrow.