National One: Bedford Blues 34 Moseley 10

It's hard to stay positive in such an increasingly negative situation, but that's a characteristic that Ian Smith possesses.

Despite seeing his side fall to their sixth consecutive defeat, ship 136 points in their last three matches and muster up a mere 18 in response, the Moseley head coach remains upbeat.

Even after watching his club's front-row injury crisis worsen with prop Ben Buxton picking up a rib injury which looks set to keep him out of action for four weeks, Smith still managed to put on the bravest of faces.

"I'm happy where we are at this point. We sat down in August and worked out that we would have as many points as we've got," he said.

"There's that to look at but obviously there's games which we could have got points from. There's plenty more to come when we get all these players back."

With no wins on the road on their return to National One, it's a far cry from Moseley's dominant display in National Two last season; surely, confidence is swiftly sapping from the Billesley Common outfit?

"Not at all, we are particularly positive," said Smith. "I think we know that there are some very good sides in this league and the players do know that they are letting themselves down a bit in certain areas of the game. It's all to do with experience."

Upon entering Goldington Road, Moseley were stepping into the den of a lion that was licking its wounds from the defeat at Pertemps Bees last weekend.

With a partisan crowd behind them, Bedford were looking to end a three-game losing streak so it was no surprise when the Blues charged into a comfortable 22-0 lead after 24 minutes with Moseley not having a sniff of the ball.

A penalty from full-back James Pritchard, two tries for flanker Sacha Harding [one unconverted] and a solo score for scrum-half Karl Dickson had helped build up that early lead.

Moseley ended the first half with a good spell of possession but two driving mauls disintegrated on the line and all they could muster was a Ollie Thomas penalty in front of the posts.

But the red-and-blacks defended like warriors for the opening 25 minutes of the second-half and it felt as if they were pinned in the right hand corner for an eternity.

Bedford's next batch of points came courtesy of a penalty try converted by Pritchard.

Moseley were plunged into disarray when Buxton hobbled off clutching his ribs, leaving the rest of the match to continue with uncontested scrums.

Bedford flanker Nic Strauss snapped up a dropped ball from a lineout on the right flank to cross for an unconverted try after 75 minutes.

However, Moseley had the last say with an unexpected try from replacement Paul Knight after he emerged from a crowd of bodies to dot down under the posts, Thomas adding the extra points.

BEDFORD: Pritchard, Hinkins, Roberts, Allen, Page, Broadfoot (Kendall, 76), Dickson (Patston, 76), Volland (Alexander, 57), Whitehead (Price, 63), Cole (Brown, 72), Comb, Botha (Phillips, 53), Strauss, Harding, Kettle (Brady, 68).
MOSELEY: Thomas, Oduoza, Bressington, Buckley, O'Leary (Binns, 52), MacDonald, Hunter, Buxton (Knight, 70), Caves (Bick, 67), Bayliss (Coles, 67), Hadley (Lightowler, 49), Stott, Evans, Halbert (Lennard, 49), Rodwell.
Referee: Gareth Copsey (RFU).