DARLINGTON slipped back into the third relegation place in National Three North when a second half fightback fell just short and they lost 24-19 at Leicester Lions.

Neighbours Mowden Park did them no favours by losing 32-8 at Hull Ionians, who began the day a point behind but with four games left are now three ahead of Darlington.

One point ahead of Hull are West Park St Helens and those two play each other on Humberside in two weeks. Otherwise Hull have a tough finish involving trips to Rugby and Blaydon, although they will hope to win the final match at home to Fylde.

The onus is on Darlington to win three games, starting with Morley at home. They then visit Macclesfield before playing the bottom two - Orrell at home and Cleckheaton away.

Since winning away to Orrell by one point in mid-December Darlington's only win in ten games was also by one point at St Helens.

There have been enough narrow defeats like Saturday's to keep the bonus points ticking up, but they have an inferior points difference to their relegation rivals.

Leicester led 16-0 after playing downwind and when Darlington gave away a sloppy try straight after the interval it proved very costly.

They got the gap down to 21-19 after 68 minutes but conceded a penalty ten minutes later and home fly half John Boden, signed from Doncaster, took his personal tally to 19 points.

Darlington's chairman of rugby Allan Calvert said: "In the second half it should have been a case of when were going to go in front.

"The forwards played exceptionally well, but when we needed some possession in the last five minutes, we couldn't get any."

Skipper Richard Snowball was outstanding and of those recently drafted into the side flanker Andrew Tonkin and inside centre Rory Wood both played well.

Plans to blood David Judge on the wing had to be dropped because he wasn't registered, so Lee Davis had to play despite suffering from tonsillitis.

Darlington started well, but after five minutes they allowed the Lions' strong-running full back, Gareth Collins, to break away and score.

The hosts dominated the next 15 minutes and Boden landed two penalties, while Snowball's second row partner Andy Harston was sin-binned for handling in a ruck in a game in which there was a lot of interference from both touch judges.

A third penalty completed the first half scoring and on the resumption Darlington lost the ball, which was moved wide for Boden to score.

Forward pressure eventually paid for Darlington as a powerful drive allowed Andrew to send Davis over on the blind side.

Fly half Charlie Raynor added a good conversion and was again on target from wide out when Lewis was driven over from a line-out ten minutes later.

Victory began to look likely when Snowball was also driven over, but the conversion fell just short and other than Boden's penalty the final ten minutes was spent in midfield.

Given Hull's recent results, hopes were high that Mowden could beat them, but again they were unable to produce anything like the excellent home form which has secured sixth place.

Although they were outgunned up front, they weren't helped by three first half injuries.

Full back Michael Breen was taken to hospital with a neck problem, hooker Shaun Buckley suffered a broken nose, and winger Gareth Kerr had to make way for Ben Snook.

Despite the clear threat at centre from Tim Visser, on loan from Newcastle Falcons, and from Fijian winger Ben Seru, Mowden struggled to get the ball to them.

They were outplayed in the first 20 minutes and trailed 9-0 to three penalties. Breen replied after 24 minutes, but Mowden then conceded a soft try to trail 14-3 at half-time.

They resolved to attack at every opportunity in the second half and after ten minutes a brilliant move, with most of the team involved, ended with Seru scorching over from 20 metres.

But Mowden conceded a penalty shortly afterwards then Hull's greater desire to win proved decisive as they scored three more tries to claim a bonus point.

Buckley soldiered on until the 60th minute, when he was replaced by Richard Littlefair.