Bees in second-half flourish

Darlington 12

The Bees followed a lacklustre second-half performance against Dudley the previous week with an equally drab first half against their lively visitors, who deserved their 12-10 half-time lead in this National League Three North encounter.

Although the Bees opened the scoring in the sixth minute, Richard Tafa finishing off a superb handling move, Darlington had looked the better side early on and should have scored with their first posession.

Tom Rhodes' conversion meant the Bees held on to a seven-point lead until the 25th minute when Darlington centre Lee slipped through the Bees' defence.

Four minutes later, Lee crossed again when a gaping hole suddenly appeared in the Bees midfield and the No 12 was able to almost stroll over. The conversion by Kell meant the visitors led 12-7, Bees skipper Tom Rhodes adding a penalty just before half-time.

A different Bees side emerged for the second half, and a more familiar zip characterised all they tried to do.

A key tactical switch was to bring Matt Rhodes in from the wing and move Joey Nau back to his 'Austin Healy' role, where he is nominally a winger but is encouraged to pop up anywhere and everywhere in the Bees backline. They were rewarded with a drop goal from Tom Rhodes after 46 minutes and then an excellent try from the newly- liberated Nau three minutes later as Darlington had no answer to the superb handling in the home backline.

Ten minutes later, winger Joe Simpson benefited from another slick move to make it 25-12, and four minutes later Ben Greaves secured a bonus point.

Simpson got his second in the 70th minute, and a Stuart Dixon interception rounded things off late on.