WHILE Darlington were delighted to end their season last Saturday by hanging on to North One status, Mowden Park have the chance to climb into National Two tomorrow.

Their play-off hosts Cinderford are billing it as their biggest-ever game, and the only other occasion which has rivalled this for Mowden was their trip to Harlequins in the last 16 of the national cup seven years ago.

Cinderford, who have finished as runners-up in their second season in National Three South, are expecting a crowd of 2,000 for the only match in Gloucestershire tomorrow.

Their team comprises a mixture of Gloucester Academy youngsters and former players with the Premiership club, including 40-year-old prop Andy Deacon. He also helps another ex-Gloucester man, Peter Glanville, with the coaching.

Mowden made sure of the play-off place with a 27-25 win at Morley, although they would have finished second anyway as their only challengers, Fylde, lost 22-7 at Tynedale.

After the management shakeup in mid-December, Mowden won 11 of their 13 league games and winning at Fylde for the first time proved crucial.

They will be hoping that experienced fly half Jon Benson has recovered from a blow on the head tomorrow, although it would be tough on replacement Charlie Rayner if he again has to start on the bench.

The young utility back had to make way for winger Gareth Kerr to return after injury at Morley, but he replaced Benson at halftime and crowned a good display with two excellent penalties into the wind.

The two kicks came either side of the 80-minute mark and followed hard on the heels of a 77thminute try by flanker Aaron Myers as a 13-point burst settled the game.

Mowden had trailed 18-14, but they were safe at 27-18 ahead and, when Morley scored their third try, the conversion proved to be the last kick of the match.

Prop Dan Miller retired with a calf injury after 65 minutes, while his front row colleagues Ross Batty and Danny Brown were sinbinned during a second half period when Mowden were under pressure and kept infringing.

Batty was otherwise outstanding, while Kerr did well on his return and Peter Browne did enough when introduced at No 8 at half-time to warrant further involvement tomorrow against his former club.

With the wind behind them in the first half, Mowden failed to use it as planned and led only 14- 10. They trailed 3-0 until Kerr cut inside to finish a well-worked try, then scrum half Andy Foreman nipped over on the blind side.

Benson converted both, but Morley came back with a converted try just before half-time and a penalty reduced the gap to one point after 54 minutes.

That was when Batty received the first yellow card and things looked ominous when Brown's departure ten minutes later was swiftly followed by the try which put Morley 18-14 ahead.

But, once Mowden were back to full strength, they dug deep and the forwards advanced through pick-and-drive for Myers to score.

Rayner converted and two minutes later landed his first superbly- struck penalty, which he followed with another in injury time.

Darlington again showed tremendous character to win 21- 8 at home to Birkenhead Park, who had played at Twickenham the previous week in the final of the EDF Intermediate Cup.

The visitors looked capable of high quality rugby, but they were denied by the sheer determination of their hosts, who won six out of 11 matches in the second half of the season, compared with two in the first half.

Middlesbrough did Darlington no favours by losing 23-20 at home to Penrith, who would have survived on points difference had Darlington lost.

Coach Kevin Robinson's men were indebted to their two Australians, with full back Evan Haigh scoring 16 points and prop Dave Tunstead the other five. But Robinson and his team have developed a lot of young players who will be all the stronger at this level next season.

The line-out has been a weakness, but Chris Palesci won everything at the front and, when he moved back for an anticipated catch-and drive, his perfect tap down set up Tunstead for a wellrehearsed try.

Peeling round from the front, the prop took it on the burst to plough over for the crucial score straight after the visitors had got the gap down to 14-8.

Despite facing the wind, Birkenhead had more than their share of the first half play and looked confident of overturning a 14-5 deficit as they began to kick for territory.

They dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half, but the closest they came was when a catch-and-drive was stopped inches short. Then the ball was moved out and a crunching tackle went in, followed by the Darlington forwards piling in to win a turnover.

The Merseysiders managed to keep the pressure on and kicked a penalty with 15 minutes left. But Darlington came straight back with Tunstead's try, which Haigh converted to add to his three firsthalf penalties.

He also scored a superb try on the half hour after Birkenhead conceded a penalty plus ten metres for backchat well inside the Darlington half.

Haigh kicked it to touch 30 metres out on the right and, from Palesci's take, the ball was moved out with fly half Charlie Catterall's long pass finding Haigh at outside centre.

His excellent line took him through the defence before he veered right and outpaced the remaining cover to score.

Probably wondering how they could be trailing 11-0, Birkenhead came straight back with a good try and at that point they looked favourites. But they eventually had to concede that, whenever they got into a good position, Darlington would come up with an impressive riposte.