HAT-TRICK hero Max Hayman believes the come-from-behind 24-21 victory at Birmingham Moseley shows how far his Rams side have progressed this season.

Winning for the 18th time in 20 games, they National League by seven points from Cambridge with Sale FC close behind in third place. The trio look set to battle it out for the title with six matches remaining.

Things began disastrously for Rams as the Midlanders raced into a 14-0 lead at more than a point-per-minute on the back of two Ryan Roach tries off the back of the maul, along with a brace of Dan Lewis conversions.

Rams, however, hit back strongly and cut the deficit to four points the break with Hayman and skipper Robbie Stapley crashing over from close range.

A second for the hooker, added to by Rowan Grundy, nudged the away side in front just after the hour mark, only for Moseley to reply with a converted Jide Ajayi effort.

However, the hosts knocked the restart on, and after winning a penalty near the line, Hayman blasted over for the decisive score – albeit his side needed to produce a final turnover late on.

He admitted: “Our side this year is the same side, but also a new one – it’s largely the same group of boys, but with a new sort of goal. We know what we can do, and we’re really working hard to do it.

“Moseley came flying out the blocks and credit to them to leave us 14-0 down, but I think it shows how far we’ve come as a team.

“In previous seasons heads might have gone down and we’d have struggled as the game went on, but we didn’t stop fighting and got three tries back against them. Then they went back ahead, but we got it done and it was a great win.”

After their slow start, Rams spent much of the game on the front foot, and Hayman – who now heads the club’s try-scoring list with 16 to his name this season – paid tribute to the way Birmingham stayed in the contest despite also coming under considerable pressure at the scrum.

He continued: “They’ve got a lot of big boys, but they get down low and defend really well – they’re goal-line defence was outstanding. The scrum went well and it was great to have (James) Baker back in the side – that man can do some things!

“It was also lovely to be on the pitch with Moff (Ollie Moffitt) for his 50th cap, I enjoyed that a lot.”

Rams host former Premiership side Leeds Tykes on Saturday (3pm), with the visitors currently sitting second from bottom of the table.