NOTTINGHAM'S love affair with Billesley Common continued
with the Green and Whites overcoming Moseley 28-17 on
Saturday.
The hard-fought victory is Nottingham's sixth successive away to
Moseley and tenth win on the trot against the Red and Black.
Centre Joe Cobden, who was brought into the starting XV as a
late replacement for Tim Streather who was ruled out with a
niggling leg injury, took centre stage from the outset.
After just two minutes the 21-year-old pounced on a loose
Moseley pass to start and finish a brilliant run-away try.
Picking the ball up deep in defence, Cobden found Rhys Crane
with space out wide with the winger bursting 40m before cutting the
ball back inside for Cobden to score under the posts.
Moseley came up with an immediate response through Alex Day,
before Glyn Hughes levelled proceeding with the conversion. Hughes
then kicked the hosts ahead with a penalty.
It was first and last time that Moseley held the advantage.
Following Alex Shaw's hustle and bustle from a Nottingham
line-out, Cobden was again on hand to apply the finishing touches
with his second try of the afternoon.
A successful James Arlidge conversion a penalty gave Nottingham
a 17-10 lead at half-time.
With his 100th first team penalty, Arlidge kicked the
visitor further ahead after 52minutes.
Soon after Moseley's Anthony Carter saw red for a landing a late
tackle on Nottingham's Andrew Savage.
The Nottingham full-back quickly shook off the knock, but Green
and Whites were seemingly stunned by the one man advantage as they
often tried to force something out of nothing.
While Nottingham weren't nearly as slick as they were earlier in
the game, captain Brent Wilson managed to put the game out of
Moseley's reach by finishing off a finely worked team try.
Moseley, however, refused to give-up with Simon Hunt setting up
a tense finale when he crossed for the hosts' second try.
With both outfits intent on bagging a bonus point for their
efforts, the frantic use of the ball resulted in little more than a
succession of penalties.
Nottingham 28 (Joe Cobden 2, Brent Wilson
tries; James Arlidge 2 from 3 conv; Arlidge 3 from 4 pens)
d Moseley 17 (Day, Hunt tries; Hughes 2 conv;
Hughes pen).
NOTTINGHAM: Savage; Hough (Jackson 64), Cobden,
Munro, Crane; Arlidge, Romans (Barnham 74); Parr, Duffey (Stevens
80+3), Holford (Bower 74), Montagu (Quinn 80+3), Rouse, Cooper
(Calladine 64), Wilson, Shaw. Replacement not used: Lynn
MOSELEY: Carter; Hunt S, Hunt B (Thomas 53),
Hayter, Mogensen; Hughes (Davies 62), Day (Brown 53); Waller, Caves
(Wilkes 62), Voisey, Lockley, Powell, Mason, Pons (Robinson 66),
Pienaar. Replacements: Mather, Meddick