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Horden stayed on the coat-tails of the Durham Northumberland Division One's leaders when they made it five wins out of six at Novocastrians.

Horden are third in their own right, just two points behind the unbeaten Newcastle Sides at the top, Northern and Team Northumbria.

And the colliery side enjoyed a successful trip to the lowest-ranked of Tyneside's six clubs in this division.

But there was to be no hat-trick of hat-tricks for Darren Witte, who had scored trebles against Ashington and Hartlepool on consecutive Saturdays.

It wasn't just a fruitless day for the in-form centre - it was a fristrating day for the whole squad.

While Horden coaches Glenn Bowman and Wayne McDowell will be pleased with the team's position, their performance was short of what they are capable of.

"There weren't many highlights," said Bowman. "We got two points away from home which we must be happy about, but while we won, the lads were very fristrated after the game. They knew we hadn't played as well as we can and how we want to play.

"We were a bit unhappy with how the breakdown was refereed. We tried to be positive in this part of the game but the way he refereed it and the way we thought it should have been refereed were two different things!

But having said that, I'm not going to carp on about the ref. The fact is we didn't play well and there are areas in which we need to improve."

Horden began badly at Sutherland Park and never really got out of first gear and losing Owen Bennett, Craig Gilmour and Dean Armstrong to the sinbin did not aid their cause.

The opening stages were scrappy, with play littered with stoppages and penalties, aminly against the visitors. One resulted in Novos takin a 3-0 lead.

Horden were not really firing though they did get on the scoresheet on the half-hour. David Heckles kicked into the home half and followed up well for Horden to recycle the ball and release the backs, where Andrew Turner made a break to run in from 20 metres. Craig Jones converted to put Horden 7-3 ahead at the break.

After the interval, Horden moved into the opposition territory and when they ran a quick penalty, Heckles went over for a try which Jones Converted.

Horden lost skipper Gavin Davidson with an injury but they were not weakened because they were able to bring on Paul James.

The scrummage worked well throughout for Horden, even during the spells where Bennett and Gilmour were in the sin-bin and they had only seven forwards.

But Novos were still dangerous and they should have scored two tries. First though they knocked on with the line begging and then Horden planker Kevin McCourt did superbly to tackle the would-be scorer as he went over the line.

Those two moments were to prove vital as Horden moved 21-3 ahead with their third try. Richie Thirkell crashing over from close range, Turner this time converting.

Novos did add a converted try to gain reward for their whole-hearted effort.