For 40 minutes you would have struggled to slip a single sheet of paper between Old Albanian and Birmingham Moseley but by the end War and Peace would have slid in comfortably.

Two tries inside the first four minutes of the second half from the visitors left OAs facing a mountain to climb, one they weren’t able to surmount as they lost 38-19 at Woollams in National One.

Albanian will have been boosted by two tries of their own in as many minutes right at the death, but they were victims of making too many mistakes in the second period..

The two sides had turned round level at 7-7 in a first half where you couldn’t separate the work rate, chances or endeavour.

Sam Lunnon had put OAs in front after 23 minutes, picking up the scraps and dropping over the line after Dan Watt had burst through the Birmingham defensive line but been stopped inches short.

But with four minutes of the half remaining, Moseley were all square once again.

They had been held up but from the resulting five-metre scrum, Chris Brightwell picked up and crashed over.

The game to that point had been a war of attrition but Moseley’s start to the second period put them firmly in control.

Joshua Jarvis burst through the middle to score under the posts two minutes in and almost from the kick-off, some deft hands set Brightwell in for his second.

The bonus-point score came just past the hour with Sam Pointon scoring after wriggling through the defence following a quick throw.

And two more tries finally killed off any resistance left, one of which was a joyous score with plenty of passing out of the tackle.

But a yellow card late on for Birmingham gave Old Albanian the chance to restore some pride and narrow the final score.

A pushover try, which saw Alex Post one of the last to emerge, and a second for Lunnon a minute later left OAs with one chance to snatch a bonus point.

They couldn’t manage that and will be looking to rectify the mistakes made when they face the undefeated league leaders Darlington Mowden Park at home next Saturday.