Moseley 30
Bristol 25
Moseley finally did it. They finally beat a team above them in the league - and did so convincingly too.
However, such is the Moseley way, they did it and it ended up counting for little. This, after all, is a club that looks for the easy path, eschews it and heads off in the opposite direction.
And so not even their best performance and most impressive victory of the season was enough to lift them free of the dreaded relegation play offs.
That says more about the ridiculous format of the Championship than it does about a moderately decent team that has won 45 per cent of its matches and has finished 55 points clear of the drop zone.
It will be a travesty if the unlikely comes to pass and Moseley are the ones to drop into the community game.
But this season was always going to be a struggle and had the structure been the same as last year, when it was a straightforward sprint to the finish line, Ian Smiths men would have settled for a final six games against the bottom three teams.
And anyway, in terms of budget they are probably not too far from where financial gravity dictates they should hover.
But their problem remains an inability to raise themselves above the prosaic when victory is anything other than an absolute necessity.
It was just that at the end of last term when a cocktail of luck, desperation and opportunism saw them lift the National Trophy and power their way to a nine-year high league finish.
What they must do now is make themselves believe they are in a similar situation.
They must set their sights on winning all six of their play off matches and having beaten Rotherham, Coventry and Birmingham & Solihull home and away already this season, that is a realistic target.
Especially if their pack can recreate the intensity with which they went about their work against Bristol and if Tristan Roberts can continue in the same outstanding vein of form.
Roberts performances were a key factor is last years success and so they will be an important determinant in the direction of this years campaign.
To see him bouncing 50m clearances over the opposite wingers head into touch was as heart warming as the return of Henry Trinder and renaissance of Jonny May.
How crucial to Moseleys cause their Kingsholm Kiddies are. One only hopes Trinders hamstring injury is not too serious, though to see the young centre carried from the pitch it is difficult to be optimistic.
The much-maligned and raw but promising centre may yet be the catalyst that keeps Moseley free from having to endure another white knuckle ride.
MOSELEY: Borgen; May, Trinder (Keys 24), Reay, Mensah-Coker; Roberts, Gasson (Taylor 69); Williams, Caves (Oselton 73), Sigley, Muldowney, Stott, Mason, Pennycook C, Wilson. Reps not used: Hall, Rowland, MacBurnie
BRISTOL: Arscott L; Arscott T, Eves, Fatialofa (Crockett 60), Norton; Jarvis, Spice; Irish, Blaney (Johnston 40), Crompton (Thompson 56), Sambucetti (Montagu 56), Budgett, Grieve, Pennycook R (Merriman 73), Phillips. Replacements: Shaw, Davies
Referee: Martyn Fox (RFU)
