He could also be out for the visit of Newbury and could, therefore, not play again until the Boxing Day derby with Coventry.

But Smith is just thankful the injury to his knee wasn’t worse. “It was the worst cut I have ever seen,” the former Scotland international said.

“It was six or seven inches long and right down to the bone. Luckily we had a surgeon there because it needed proper theatre stitching.”

Sigley’s loss was not the only low point of a game Moseley lost in the last minute having led throughout. The Billesley outit were 8-0 up at half time and 15-10 up in the 80th minute only to botch a scrum and allow home No 8 Rory McKay to level the scores and James Pritchard to kick the decisive points.

However, Smith praised his men for nearly pulling off an improbable victory. “I thought our performance merited the win,” he said.

“The improvement from last year, when we lost heavily, to this is vast. The next step we have to take is to try and get four or five points from the positions we create for ourselves.

“The important thing is we don’t stop doing what got us into those positions in the first place. It’s not that we need to change anything, if we keep playing that way a win against one of the big teams isn’t too far away.”

Sigley wasn’t the only absentee. Richard Stott pulled out earlier in the afternoon after his wife gave birth, Jack Adams, Henry Trinder. James Rodwell and Charlie Sharples were not available, forcing Smith to try new combinations in the backs.

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