9:00am Monday 7th January 2013
BATH head coach Gary Gold has not given up hope of reaching the Aviva Premiership play-offs despite yesterday's 29-15 defeat to Wasps.
Gold's troops have now gone four league games without a win and remain in eighth place after Christian Wade's try on the stroke of half-time changed the course of the game.
Bath had taken the early initiative and led 12-3 after 20 minutes through tries from Nick Abendanon and Michael Claassens, but Wade's trickery, Stephen Jones' majestic right boot - which gathered 17 points in total - and Chris Bell's late effort proved too much for the visitors.
However, despite their forlorn second-half display, Gold was defiant in his belief that his players could respond in style.
"I think the table is quite tight this year, if you look at it if you're a pessimist and see the glass half empty you could think [we're out of the top four contention]," he said.
"But we have a good group of rugby players, the attitude is right and I'm certainly not going to be giving up on the top four going forward.
"At 29-15 it doesn't look like we showed character but I think we did, we started off well and we put them under pressure, but that try just before half-time hurt us there's no doubt about it.
"I think we defended bravely for quite a number of phases at that stage and a piece of brilliance from their very good players led to them getting a try."
MORE BATH RUGBY NEWS & REACTION IN FRIDAY'S WILTSHIRE TIMES
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