Adrian Jarvis is confident Bristol Rugby's defeat to Exeter will prove to be little more than a blip in terms of his side's quest for promotion back to the Guinness Premiership.

Bristol suffered their first defeat of the Championship season as promotion rivals Exeter won 35-26 at the Memorial Stadium yesterday.

The Devonians scored four tries to claim a bonus point as they moved top of the table, with Bristol dropping down to third, behind Nottingham.

But fly-half Jarvis – who kicked all six of his attempts at goal to end with a personal haul of 16 points – is confident Bristol can learn from yesterday's loss.

"It's a blip, but we'll move on and learn from this," he said.

"We'll look at what we did wrong and what we did right – and, although it's obviously not the result we wanted, there was some good stuff out there.

"The game was physical and quick, the kind of thing you expect in the Premiership. It was a good test for us and I think we've shown we can play with that – and probably should have won the game."

Bristol trailed 13-0 after 17 minutes – and went in at half-time 23-6 behind – before a brave second-half rally saw them draw level at 23-23 thanks to tries from Junior Fatialofa and Dan Norton.

But they could only stay on level terms for two minutes, before Phil Dollman's try gave Exeter a lead they would not relinquish.

And Jarvis knows exactly where Bristol Rugby erred after fighting their way into the contest.

"We've got to learn to hold on to the ball at the right times," he said.

"We had done so well to pull ourselves back into the game, but when we got level at 23-23, perhaps we should have looked for a bit more territory.

"We came out to play some rugby, but we're gutted that we fell away at the end – and we've got to find a way to control those momentum shifts in a game."

And a 100 per cent goal-kicking haul proved little consolation for Jarvis, who would have swapped his successful kicks for any kind of victory.

"I'd be hitting it well in training and it went well on the pitch, but that doesn't count for much when you're on the losing side," said Jarvis. "I'd rather miss kicks and win the game."