Steve Meehan paid tribute to his Bath battlers' persistence after a late Jonny Fa'amatuainu try gave them a losing bonus point at Sale last night.

Bath trailed 23-9 at Edgeley Park before the Samoan went over under the posts in the closing stages, giving Jack Cuthbert a simple conversion to seal the bonus point.

The point was enough to take Bath back into the top four of the Guinness Premiership – at the expense of Harlequins – with four matches to play.

Sale scored three tries – through Mark Cueto, Charlie Hodgson and Juan-Martin Fernandez Lobbe – and would have gone above Bath in the table had they scored a fourth.

Head coach Meehan said: "I was pleased with the persistence to get that bonus point, because I felt we had done everything to give Sale opportunity in the first 30 minutes.

"We had to stick in and work hard, and for Jonny to get that try – and for us to then put in a good defensive effort and deny them at the end – makes us very happy.

"Little things like that could count and could become very important at the end of the season.

"It's an interesting run of fixtures for everyone – and we now need to get some decent results from our two games over the next week. That would put us in a decent position going into the last two games."

Bath are likely to be without No 8 Daniel Browne for their forthcoming home matches against Wasps and Harlequins, though, after he limped off with a foot injury.

"It's early days and the initial prognosis isn't great – but it's hard to say without scans or X-rays," said Meehan.