This was not vintage Moseley but it had enough Christmas sparkle to complete both the first double over Bees and the first victory for the Red and Blacks at Sharmans Cross Road.

For Bees it had the significance of a sea shift in the balance of Midland rugby power which seems to be drifting westwards to Billesley Common.

Bees, with more than half the season gone and only two wins, are going to need about seven wins from the remaining 14 matches to be in with a prayer of avoiding the drop.

They had the chance to take the lead when fly-half Jon Higgins had a kickable penalty 25 metres or so out.

He missed as did his opposite number Greg MacDonald from a similar position a few moments later.

The sparring was over in the 12th minute, though, when centre Jack Adams, who seemed to be all over the pitch, was fed wide on the right as Moseley broke from deep in their own 22.

He took the ball to half-way where he found wing Dan Norton inside him. Norton in turn fed the midfield and then looped around to be ready for the final pass to score a converted try by the posts.

Four minutes later Bees could probably have guessed it was not their day. MacDonald went through the defence unscathed but was dragged down just short of the line.

Moseley were slow to support so possession was lost but as Bees tried to clear from their own line the kick was charged down and No 8 Mark Evans pounced by the posts, MacDonald making it 14-0.

Bees, to their credit, rallied and tried a more basic approach of mauls and drives which resulted in a succession of penalties, try-scorer Evans being yellow-carded, and finally a penalty try for a scrummaging offence which took them to the break 14-7 down.

Three minutes after the turnaround, though, Bees were back in the mire. A line out in their own 22 was not straight and from the scrum No 9 Jimmy Ireland picked up and angled across the defence to go over by the posts with MacDonald making it 21-7.

Both teams had a bonus point to play for, with Moseley after four tries and Bees needing to at least be within seven points.

The result was a half of frantic rugby littered with mistakes, with neither side achieving their goal and leaving both coaches with something to talk about once the mince pies are finished.

Bees' head coach Russell Earnshaw took over this week when director of rugby Ben Harvey was sacked and must be looking very carefully at the chalice he has been handed.

He said: "We were killed by our line outs and turnovers and our speed over the ground needs improving. Then there are the mistakes at crucial times which is the story of our season.

"We will have a look at it when we do a debrief of the game but there is no point standing around crying over it. We want to play with pace and we did not have the fast ball that we wanted."

His opposite number Ian Smith said: "We were well in control of it. We will rue the missed bonus point though. We were panicking a bit towards the end with the ball, without it we were fine. There were a few naive errors but it is a win and a win at Pertemps is always difficult.

"We have a bit of development to go to get the five-pointers. We got the four points, though, so thank you very much and Merry Christmas."