For a second week in a row, Mowden Park were on the wrong side of a 1 point margin at the Darlington Arena. Saturday's game was in stark contrast to the Bishop's Stortford defeat however, with DMP coming close to pulling off a remarkable second half comeback.

Unlike last weekend when Mowden sped to a 17-0 lead, this time it was the visitors who opened up a big lead early. Cambridge enjoyed the lions share of possession early on, and took the lead on 12 minutes when number 8 Anthony Maka profited from a driving maul. A brace of Stef James penalties stretched the lead to 13, before Matt Minogue got DMP on the board off the tee. Things got even better for the visitors soon after, with another driving maul setting up winger Kwaku Asiedu for his first of two tries on the day. Mowden grew into the half but were unable to narrow the 3-20 gap at half time.

In similar fashion to the trip to Hull a fortnight ago, Mowden came alive in the second half - crossing for 4 tries. First Liam Checksfield sprinted over in the corner, before a Rian Hamilton kept the Cambridge scoreboard ticking. The lively Chris McTurk then weaved his way over on his return to the side, before Morgan Passman scored in trademark style for DMP's third. Ali Ledingham converted to narrow the gap to just 1. Once again Cambridge hit back almost immediately through Asiedu, before Max Fraine finished off a flowing DMP move to set up a grandstand finish with 5 minutes to play. Cambridge saw the game out well however, with DMP taking 2 losing bonuses from an end-to-end game. Joe Craggs was awarded Man of the Match after a brilliant all round display, and Mowden will take the positives from a strong second half comeback.

DMP now travel to Rams next weekend, before a bye weekend on 8th October. They return to the Arena on Saturday 15th October when they take on Rosslyn Park in a 3pm kick off.