Steve Meehan struggled to hide his frustration at referee Martin Fox after Bath lost 21-14 at Harlequins.

Bath suffered their first away defeat of the season in the Guinness Premiership – and slipped off the top of the table – after failing to build on a 14-9 second-half lead.

Daniel Browne’s try 10 minutes into the second period put Bath in front after an even first half, only for tries from Jordan Turner-Hall and Ceri Jones to deny them.

And while head coach Meehan praised the efforts of his players, he was left baffled by some of the decisions from the officials.

“Without doubt that was a game we could have won,” said Meehan.

“Harlequins played some good territory rugby but we never gave ourselves the opportunity to get out there and enforce our dominance on the game.

“The penalty count was something like 14-7 and when it’s that one-sided it’s difficult to get any momentum into your game.”

Meehan’s main gripe concerned Fox’s decision to twice penalise his team for deliberate knock-ons as they desperately defended wave after wave of Quins attack.

“There were certainly some confusing decisions out there and I am at a loss to explain some of the things that went against us,” he said.

“There will certainly be interesting conversations between ourselves and those in charge this week.

“I think when two guys make a tackle and there’s a knock-on – to be penalised for that, for a good defensive effort, is unbelievable.

“There must be an ELV that I haven’t heard of and that happened on two occasions.

“Those situations just can’t happen – we can’t afford to have those sorts of decisions in a game, because this competition is too fierce and the sides are too close.”