Paul Hull is determined for Bristol Rugby to restore pride between now and the end of the season – and felt their performance against Harlequins went some way to achieving that.

Bristol Rugby led 14-10 after a late penalty try at the Memorial Stadium – only for Ugo Monye's even later score to hand them a 17-14 Guinness Premiership defeat.

Bottom-of-the-table Bristol are now 12 points adrift of eleventh-placed Worcester with seven matches to play.

And with Hull's men facing double-headers against Leicester and Wasps – as well as trips to Bath and London Irish – one bookmaker was last night offering odds of 1-100 that Bristol will finish bottom of the pile.

The club's new head coach said: "Some things are out of our control. We can't control what the opposition do – and Worcester and Newcastle have clearly turned the corner.

"It's going to be tough, but we knew this, and we are professional people. Now it's all about individual performance and putting a bit of pride back into our game in the latter stages of the season. That's all we can do.

"We want to finish the season with a couple of wins under our belt and that's a really good focus for us.

"We're bottom of the table and favourites to go down, but we can still try to grind out some wins – and that's what we are going to aim to do.

"We had to put in a performance against Harlequins which was better than our last performance here against Newcastle – and we have made massive strides in that direction."

Hull was appointed head coach following Richard Hill's departure on Thursday – and faces the unenviable task of trying to persuade Bristol's top players to stay with the club.

"It's difficult circumstances, but I've just got to get on with my role now," he said.

"It's a big task planning for next season – trying to contract players here and secure players for next year. It's been a hectic couple of days and it's not finished yet."

Bristol's cause was not helped yesterday when fly-half Adrian Jarvis was forced off in the fourth minute after being caught by Harlequins flanker Will Skinner as he kicked downfield.

The former Quin left the field on crutches at half-time and his leg injury will be assessed today.

"It obviously doesn't look good if he is on crutches – and that was a telling blow, a couple of minutes into the game," said Hull.

"When it rains, it pours, but we regrouped and got ourselves in a position to win the game.

"When you play this game, you play it on the edge, and I am sure there was no malicious intent on that."