PLYMOUTH Albion boss Graham Dawe admitted his side deserved to lose against Moseley on Saturday.

The defeat was their fourth this season – three of which have come away from home.

Albion went 7-0 ahead after just four minutes of the Championship clash at Billesley Common, but Moseley hit back to lead 13-7.

And, after Plymouth failed to score any points when the hosts were reduced to 14 men on 40 minutes, the home side built on their 20-10 half-time advantage to secure a well-earned win.

The loss was Albion's seventh successive away defeat – the last time they won on their travels was back on March 7.

"It is a young team and you have to respect the opposition," said Dawe, who saw his side lose the services of try-scorer Sean-Michael Stephen at half-time with a stomach bug and Joe Clark in the second period with a bruised shoulder.

"But we would be the first to admit that we didn't bring enough to the game to win an away game.

"It is easy to talk about it, but it is no secret that is very hard to win away from home.

"There will always be a reason why it is hard – the opposition are the main factor – but something has to give."

Dawe added on what the Plymouth players must do in order to claim a long-awaited away victory: "They have got to buy in as a team, stand up and be counted – that is it really, there are no secrets.

"You need to frustrate the opposition, frustrate the home crowd and do what the referee wants you to do."

As for his side failing to score when they had their one-man advantage, Dawe said: "We had a penalty chance and we missed it. The clock ticked too quickly for us."

What made Saturday's defeat and below-par performance all the more frustrating for Albion's supporters was that they had seen their side produce two promising displays against Exeter and Cornish Pirates in the fortnight beforehand.

Those two matches yielded a bonus point from a 30-24 loss at Exeter and then a 16-8 home victory against Pirates and laid to rest the 38-3 home defeat to Bedford on week three of the season.

"It was different circumstances," said Dawe

(pictured above)

comparing Saturday's performance to the displays against Exeter and Pirates.

"Moseley played very similar in our 22 as Bedford did – it is a bit of an Achilles heel with us at the moment.

"They seemed to lie in our tackle area, slow our ball up quite easily and we didn't seem to slow up their tackle ball enough.

"Although I felt we dominated the game first half, we didn't, ultimately, score enough points and come the end of the game, you are not going to have as many points as the opposition."

Next up for Albion is the visit of Doncaster to Brickfields on Saturday.

Both teams will be desperate for the win – Plymouth to try and climb out of the bottom four and the South Yorkshire outfit because they have yet to record a victory this season.