Saturday, May 6, 2000.

IT was the result the scriptwriters wanted but not a scoreline to ease Worcester's end of season pains.

In an action replay of last season they have faltered at the end of a long campaign and Saturday's 34-17 defeat came as no surprise.

Yet they started so well, dominating the first 20 minutes territorially even if they failed to get enough points on the board.

Poorly

They scrummaged better than Moseley, won most of their line-out ball, but again tackled poorly and made far to many basic handling and passing errors.

Worcester were also slow of the mark from restarts getting caught cold time and again, even conceding a try under the posts from an innocuous looking penalty on half way.

When Jim Jenner scored after quarter of an hour of intense pressure Worcester seemed in control but the game swung with one good Moseley try.

From a line-out on half-way, they worked the ball forward and left eventually creating an overlap down the right for full-back Marcus Cook to supply lock Andy Hall.

The second row forward had the cheek to slip inside his marker instead of passing to his unmarked winger Andy Gray and suddenly the Moseley nerves switched to a swagger.

Worcester replied almost immediately with Andy Currier sending a delightful grubber kick behind the Moseley back line where the ball popped up perfectly for Brett Scriven to score.

But Moseley were now fired up by destiny and they were not going to let their forefathers down.

They edged in front just before half-time when a quick penalty saw flanker Bill Drake-Lee score under the posts and in injury time only a desperate tackle from Nick Baxter stopped his opposite number Rod Martin scoring from a quick line-out.

Hall added his second seven minutes after the break from a line-out and just before the hour mark Moseley went further in front when number eight Peter Buxton went over again from another line-out.

They did not have all things their own way though, and after the introduction of a new Worcester front row Nick Baxter scored in the corner from a scrum after a strong run from Currier.

Given luck they could have sneaked it as Ben Harvey had earlier scuttled clear only to be hauled back for crossing and Neil Lyman scored from close range with seven minutes from time only for the referee to surprisingly disallow the score for not being grounded.

Sealed

Nobody could begrudge Mose-ley the win though, on that of all days, and they sealed victory two minutes from time when stand-off Chris Doyle sneaked home from two yards out off the back of a maul.

Both clubs now face uncertain summers off the pitch for very different reasons but it was Moseley who had their moment in the sun as it set on The Reddings.

Worcester: Yapp, Baxter, Woof (Eastwood 74), Currier, Walker, Ward (Harvey 40), Simpson-Daniel (Fenley 64), Windo (Lyman 64), Richards (Hall 64), Collins (Linnett 64), Raymond, Merlin, Scriven, Carter, Jenner.

Replacement not used: Denham.