RICHARD Hill made no attempt to play down the significance of Friday's trip to Newcastle after his improving Bristol side slipped to a 9-6 home defeat against Sale last night.

Head coach Hill's men have now lost their opening three Guinness Premiership matches of the new season – but showed definite signs of improvement at the Memorial Stadium.

Three Luke McAlister penalties edged out Bristol, whose points came from Adrian Jarvis and Ed Barnes penalties, but the hosts at least claimed their first league point of the season.

And Hill, whose side travel to Kingston Park to face fellow bookmakers' relegation favourites Newcastle on Friday, admits it is a game Bristol cannot afford to lose.

"I think we need to win that one," said Hill. "Newcastle will probably be in that bottom six come the end of the season, so when you play home and away against those sorts of teams, those are points you've got to pick up. They will be very important at the end.

"We've still got 11 matches where a number of the teams we play against will be missing their internationals, so we knew this would be a pretty difficult start when everybody's fully loaded.

"I don't think Sale have got a single injury in their squad – they came down with probably the strongest 22 they could produce.

"We need to get that first win, so next week's game becomes very important. We will prepare thoroughly for it and give it everything we can on Friday."

But Bristol might have to head to the North East without fly-half Jarvis and winger Tom Arscott, both of whom were injured last night.

"Adrian tweaked a knee, which isn't good news," said Hill. "And the other one is Tom Arscott, who bashed a shoulder. He got a bang on the AC joint.

"But Adrian's is the one that is more concerning."

Bristol thought they had scored a try when Neil Brew's quick tap penalty and dart over the line had supporters celebrating – but the play was brought back for an earlier penalty award, which Jarvis kicked.

And despite the disappointment of not winning – or crossing the line – Hill was pleased by his team's improvement following their 31-13 defeat at Harlequins six days earlier.

"I'm much more heartened by that," said Hill.

"If we use that now to start our season, I think we will go from strength to strength.

"If we can produce that against most teams, who haven't got quite as good a defence as Sale have got, then we should s