The visitors dominated the early exchanges but resolute Lions defence held them out and it was the home side who scored first when a driving maul was finished off by Oliver Taylor on 18 minutes.

The game remained in the balance though and Mowden levelled ten minutes later when centre Ben Frankland crossed following a nice line in midfield.

The Lions scored a crucial try with the last play of the first half when the impressive Nick Cairns crashed over in the corner and Dan Lewis converted for a deserved 12-5 lead at the break.

Now playing with the wind at their backs, the Lions were dominating territory, and were rewarded with three unanswered tries from Joey Patrick, England Under 20 starlet Toby Cousins, and finally Jamel Hamilton who profited from an interception to give the home side a commanding 29-5 lead.

The Lions scrum was proving too strong for Mowden, and with two players in the sin bin for the visitors, Lewis scored under the posts and then duly converted his own score to move the home side in to an unassailable 36-5 lead.

Darlington scored a consolation try with 5 minutes to go when replacement winger Nathan Greenwood outstripped the covering defence to cross in the corner but deservedly the Lions got the last score when Dan Lewis intercepted and ran in from distance. He converted again to take his personal haul to 18 points for the day.

The Lions now sit one point behind Bishop's Stortford, two points ahead of Taunton and four points ahead of Cinderford, with one game to play. Two of the four sides will be relegated following the last round of fixtures on 27th April. Cinderford host Bishop's Stortford, Taunton travel to Blackheath and the Lions will be visiting Sale.

Head coach Gareth Collins commented; ''Obviously there was a lot of pressure on us today so I'm delighted with how well the group dealt with that and performed the way they did. DMP are a really dangerous side and they threw the ball around just as we expected them to. We had to work hard defensively for the opening quarter, so to come out of that without conceding was really pleasing and I thought our attack was excellent. Whatever happens next week we can be really proud of what we've achieved this season, however we'll be going to Sale desperate to stay up and will give it everything we've got to try and make that happen.''

Leicester Lions (15-9, 1-8): Patrick, Cousins, Hamilton, Bouchier, Davies, Lewis, Stubbs, Williams (c), Taylor, Thompson, Godefroy, Ward, Koroiyadi, Johnson, Cairns. Reps; Roberts, Dawson, Crane, Myall, Ogden.

Darlington Mowden Park (15-9, 1-8): Ree, McTurk, Mackenzie, Frankland, Hadfield, Law, Pascoe, Baron, Kyle-Clay, Harrison, Usher, Craggs, Smith, Fantini, Hodgson. Reps: Fraine, Guest, Vaioleti, Rickard, Greenwood.