Last season Bradford & Bingley missed out on both automatic promotion and the play-off match by finishing third in National League Three North.

But with Nuneaton leading the Bees by a mere point and the sides having to meet each other twice, Bradford & Bing-ley centre Phil Greaves is adamant that this will be their season.

He was confident of that before the campaign even started and nothing has sway-ed him since.

After their full house of points against Darlington Mowden Park, the elder Greaves said: "We have to keep winning and keep getting those bonus points and my aim is for us to finish first rather than second, even though there are rumours that the top two will go up automatically.

"Also Nuneaton have yet to go to Blaydon, who I think can turn them over, and we have to play Nuneaton twice.

"I am certain that this will be our year and the club are in the right frame of mind to do it."

Phil Greaves helped the Bees on the way by scoring their third try but admits that he gets even more pleasure by being a try creator than a try scorer.

"It is always nice to get over the line but I am more of a provider than a finisher and it is just nice to get a few games under my belt rather than the injury-disrupted season I had last year.

"Now I feel I am getting a bit of a roll on and am getting back to somewhere near my best form."

As usual these days, the Wagon Lane surface looked picture perfect, Greaves calling it "not only the best pitch in our division but the best in the division above as well".

The elder Greaves will certainly have been happy then with what happened in the third minute as it was his half-break that led to the ball being recycled for second row Steve Burns to score.

Fly half Tom Rhodes converted that, added a penalty seven minutes later and converted flanker Ian Judson's try in the 19th minute to make it 17-0.

The first concerted Mowden Park pressure didn't arrive until half an hour but even that didn't bring them a try, right winger Aloisio Atelemo being bundled into the flag in the right-hand corner.

A minute into injury time, Phil Greaves embarked on a bullocking run that scattered three Park defenders in his wake as he raced on to a short Rhodes pass on his way to the whitewash.

Rhodes' conversion made it 24-0 and at half-time the Bees brought on Latu Makaafi for Neil Spence in the back row, their talismanic flanker having suffered knee and shoulder injuries in the first half.

The opening phase of the second half was scrappy from Bradford & Bingley, Judson being unable to profit from an overlap on the left and Makaafi being barged into touch on the right.

Even a tap penalty inside the Mowden Park 22 didn't bring any reward, Iain Dixon almost intercepting a pass which could have brought the visiting full back an long-range interception try.

This was the kind of untidy period of the match that prompted Phil Greaves to say afterwards that the Bees should be scoring 80 to 100 points in some games rather than 50, but it ended in the 47th minute with a touchdown by committed No 8 Kern Yates, who did well to latch on to a pass that came to him from behind the try-line.

Rhodes converted and he later added the extra two points to a slick move that ended with a try for the popular Makaafi.

However, Mowden Park ended the contest the stronger, scrum half Andrew Foreman slipping under a tackle to score on the hour and centre Tim Yan Willem Visser crossing in the 73rd minute following a strong, arcing run.

Former skipper Barry Clark got a run out following his broken jaw and medial knee ligament problem.

He replaced Richard Hughes in the second row in the 67th minute.

But the Bees had to start the match without both left winger Mark Kirkby and prop Ronnie Kelly.

Kirkby is suffering from tendinitis in a leg while Kelly has a stomach muscle strain.

Bees' head coach Geoff Wap-pett hopes that both will be available for next Saturday's league match at Fylde.

Tim Bennett replaced Kirkby and Danny Greenhalgh stood in for Kelly.