Paul Hull is confident the first win of his Bristol reign is not far away after seeing fresh signs of encouragement in last night's defeat against Leicester, writes Steve Cotton.

Bristol looked set to record their first Guinness Premiership victory since November – and what would have been only their second of the season – as they led 14-7 and then 17-13 against the title chasers.

But Dan Hipkiss' late try swung the contest back in Leicester's favour, before Sam Vesty's penalty made the points safe as the visitors took over at the top of the table.

Bristol head coach Hull, however, is confident his team – who are 11 points adrift of Worcester at the bottom of the table and look certain to be relegated – are heading in the right direction.

"We're getting there – but we just need that first win to give the players that confidence and that boost," said Hull.

"I thought that win was coming tonight, as I did a few weeks ago against Harlequins, but it will come.

"We have to believe that win will come – and I'm fully confident it will, sooner rather than later.

"The players worked hard to get themselves in front for such a long period of the game against one of the top sides in the league. And they are devastated, because winning would have been such a big boost."

Well-worked tries from Luke Arscott and David Lemi gave Bristol the half-time lead – and Hull was encouraged by the way his players took Leicester on for lengthy periods of the game.

"That was another step forward, but we are just bitterly disappointed," he said.

"We do want to have good performances and we do want to improve our game-plan, but we also want to win games.

"We got ourselves in a very good position at half-time but the second half killed us – we couldn't get a stranglehold on the game.

"This is our fourth week of training and working towards my philosophy as a coach, but it's going to take time.

"I know that, the players know that and they are excited about playing a new style – but we are bitterly disappointed with that loss.

"The boys are enjoying the way we're playing, but obviously they are not enjoying losing.

"But there are glimmers of hope for the future and we're going to build on that. It's now a case of trying to get those W's on the sheet rather than just good performances."