Like an optimistic golfer Moseley reach the Championship turn hoping the inward holes will be more kind than the outward.

They do so second bottom of the league, with two wins and a creditable draw set against eight defeats, and already 14 points adrift of safety.

Their chances of making the top eight – and avoiding sport’s one true Group of Death – are not dead, indeed some of their performances show greater promise than at the corresponding stage last season, but they are probably more than a little ill.

Whatever happens at Nottingham on Sunday, and there is no reason why Moseley can’t secure a rare victory at Meadow Lane, nothing can disguise the fact the next couple of months are season-defining.

Advent brings Doncaster to Billesley Common to start a sequence of fixtures in which the true Moseley must stand up. London Scottish, Leeds Carnegie and Plymouth Albion follow later in December and January.

There are also trips to Esher, London Welsh and Rotherham Titans – the first and last of which present decent opportunities to pick up a precious away victory. If Moseley are to do the unexpected and haul themselves out of trouble they need four, or possibly five wins.

To assess their chances of achieving that we have no choice but to rely on the evidence of the first half of the season – and that offers both cause for optimism and pessimism.

One thing that has become clear in the early months of Kevin Maggs’ reign is that, in a world where money doesn’t just talk but actually grabs hold of your head and screams down your lughole, Moseley are in an all too familiar position – near the bottom of the financial pile.

The cake hasn’t got any bigger but Maggs has chosen to slice it differently. A larger portion has gone on the threequarters where the arrivals of Greg King, Jack Adams and Brad Hunt have brought competition to a back line that was such an Achilles heel last term.

However, that has meant a smaller piece for the boys up front and the effect has been destabilising. The departure of Nathan Williams and Terry Sigley has meant the Moseley scrum has gone from being a weapon to one which some days struggles for parity.

Nevertheless the struggles of the first few games, when Nottingham in particular pulverised them at the set-piece, have gone and with Tom Warren and Craig Voisey manning the prop positions there is more consistency.

Indeed 22-year-old Warren seemed to be in for another scrummaging education at Bedford on Saturday only to consult with Anton O’Donnell during a break in play and go on to solve the problems he was having with Phil Boulton.