MOSELEY’S arduous run of fixtures against the division’s top six sides ended in predictable fashion at Old Deer Park.
Another defeat – their fourth since they beat the same opponents in the British & Irish Cup before Christmas – came in an all-too-familiar manner.
The Red and Blacks’ masochistic tendency, one that means they leak points with alarming ease while having to perform the 12 Labours of Heracles to score any themselves, was evident once again.
Yet it is not too much of a stretch to say that had they claimed a lineout here, held a pass there and been on the right side of a couple of refereeing decisions they might have claimed a couple of bonus points.
The hope is that after a couple of pretty irrelevant B&I cup ties Moseley will resume their league programme and find themselves on the right side of the fine margins.
They face Bees at the end of the month, go to Plymouth, host Rotherham and then round off the first part of their league campaign at Esher on February 19.
All four are matches that can be won, though whether it is enough to lift Mose into the top eight is a moot point.
Certainly that is the hope of leading scorer Anthony Carter, who bagged his sixth try of the season but was frustrated to have done so in a losing cause.
“If we put some performances together, which I know Moseley can – they have done it in the past – the ingredients are in the team as you have seen with some of the play together today,” the full-back said.
“But unless you do that for 80 minutes you are not going to survive.
“We have got to carry on doing what we do well but do it for longer periods.”
WELSH: Claassens; Sampson, Tonga’uhia, Mackey (Lewis J 59), Gibson; Lennard (Luveniyali 55), Lewis R (Runciman 59); Pittman, Ma’asi (Herring 45), Ward (Johnson 60), Williams, Corker, Mills (Russell 60), Hills, Taione (Fisher 53)
MOSELEY: Carter; Bressington, Armitage, Reay, Styles (Thomas 56); Davies (Borgen 9), De La Harpe; Williams, Caves. Sigley (Voisey 40), Lyons, Stott, Mason, Pennycook, Ellery (Maltman 60). Replacements: Warner, Spivey, Taylor
