JON CALLARD summed up his feelings after Saturday's defeat against Gloucester by saying: "I can't give you any words that you can print."

That sentence just about summed up the thoughts of a majority of the 6,200 crowd packed into Bath's homely ground after another disappointing performance.

Callard was understandably frustrated as his side seemed to have turned a corner after defeating Munster in the European Cup.

"What perplexes me more than anything is that the heart and hunger that we displayed a week ago was missing," he said.

"To go into an even more historic competition in terms of Bath's history and to be confident at 15-7 up. I'm disappointed in terms of the players' attitude."

Once again, Bath were left with only the boot of Jon Preston to supply the points as the tries which were free flowing at the end of last season have alarming dried up.

Indeed, in an almost exact parallel of last term's tryless spell Bath have now gone three matches without crossing their opponents' line, which Callard finds hard to wxplain.

He said: "The harder we try, the harder it is. In the latter stages of today's game we were only inches away.

"We've gone back to walking before we can run and that's why you've seen a large percentage of kicking coming into our game in the last couple of weeks.

That's mainly because of the conditions but also to gain confidence and to give our forwards a rest because they work very hard."

However, Callard is left to rue the fact that once in a position of victory, Bath weren't able to press home the advantage.

He said: "The players haven't done themselves justice, they know that.

"We are all in this together, there are no scapegoats. I'll take the proportion of the blame and I'll face the music because that's the way it is."

Bath now have a week off to regroup and focus on the two forthcoming league matches against Sale and Rotherham.

Despite lacking several key players for these games due to the home internationals, Bath should have too much power for what are two relatively lowly placed teams in terms of league position.

Callard though is quick to quash claims that Bath only need to turn up to win.

"Nothing's easy at the moment," he said, "when the next two games come along I'll see what I've got left to select from.

"It's an opportunity for some of the younger players.Let's hope the stars of tomorrow will come through and I think they will."