On a cold, foggy Billesley Common, Bedford Blues put in a commanding performance to confirm their place in the top eight Championship play-off.

Mike Rayer’s men knew that Moseley were in a determined mood and needed to pick up a victory of their own to stave off a bottom four finish but the Blues showed great enthusiasm in difficult conditions to seal the win.

A penalty try and a score for Ian Vass sent Bedford on their way but they took control of the game very early on and never looked like losing this one.

“I think we knew it would be one for the forwards as soon as we saw the pitch,” said Blues lock Alex Rae.

“We wanted to come here and be professional. At the end of the day I think that we worked our socks off and it paid dividends at the end.

“Our desire and passion for winning is something that we talked about going into this game and although a few things didn’t go as we would have liked, we tackled everything that moved.

“We’ve been concentrating on our driving play in recent weeks and today I though it was terrific and it was great to score from the back of it.

“It was a good result, we picked up the win and now we want to keep the momentum going.”

It became obvious very early on that the forwards were going to enjoy themselves on a very sticky pitch, but no one counted on referee Terry Hall being so involved.

Tristan Roberts did what he has been doing all season by slotting a penalty in the fifth minute to give Moseley the lead.

Despite missing an equaliser in the eighth minute, Brad Davies composed himself well to level the scores in the tenth minute after Moseley were penalised for hands in the ruck.

Things in the scrum were getting a bit heated and Ben Lewitt was sent to the sin bin by the ref when he got tangled up with his opposite number and was judged to have thrown a punch. Roberts converted the resulting penalty but Davies once again levelled the scores immediately with a penalty of his own.

The Blues were nearly caught out at the restart when the ball bounced straight into the path of Ally Muldowney who made yards before recycling it out wide. As the move appeared to break down the touch judges alerted Mr Hall to another infringement and Vass joined Lewitt in the bin for an off the ball incident and Roberts again converted the penalty.

Moseley were enjoying a good spell and when Mike Gillick intercepted a pass he had support all around him but Luke Fielden tracked back well and made the vital tackle before Gillick could offload. Moseley did pick up another penalty though moments later which Roberts dispatched with ease.

Lewitt returned to the pitch as the Blues earned a lineout in Moseley’s 22 and after the ball was taken in the Bedford pack powered forward. As the line beckoned Moseley brought down the maul and Mr Hall ran under the posts awarding the penalty try which Davies converted.

Bedford started to handle the conditions a lot better as the half wore on and Muldowney felt Mr Hall’s wrath next when he became a bit too excitable at a ruck. Once again, Bedford opted for the kicking option and Davies added to his personal tally.

Bedford’s pack were operating well and Nick Walshe controlled things in textbook fashion while also putting his opposite number and the Moseley number eight under extreme pressure from start to finish.

The half came to an end with Roberts attempting a penalty kick from the halfway line but his effort barely made Bedford’s 22 before it was punted to safety.

The second half was a close affair but Bedford were in complete control throughout and Moseley only managed to make it into the Blues 22 on a couple of occasions.

Although scoring wasn’t high on the agenda in the opening 30 minutes, the Blues defence was on tremendous form with Paul Tupai, Sacha Harding, Myles Dorrian, Phil Boulton, Dan Richmond, Vass and Davies all putting in crunching tackles to avert any attack.

With the ball in hand Bedford always looked to push on via wingers Duncan Taylor or Ollie Dodge, but it was Fielden who was catching the eye by being everywhere, collecting kicks and looking to power through on every occasion.

Gillick became the fourth man to be yellow carded when illegally broke up a Bedford attack following a great drive and break by Harding. Davies took the points to secure a seven point lead, but there was still time for a late flurry of activity.

Replacement Gregor Gillanders collected a lineout ball in the 80th minute which was driven forward again before it came to Chris Goodman who made a superb break and then wrapped a pass up to Ian Vass who slid over for the try which Davies converted.

Deep in stoppage time, Moseley made it into Bedford’s 22 and after a series of penalties the home side opted for a scrum and as it came down Mr Hall was already under the posts awarding the penalty try which Robert converted.

The score gave Moseley an important bonus point as they try to avoid the relegation play-off but even their fans will have felt it was a bit more than fortunate.