Bristol are in a scrap to avoid the drop, admits Hill
And the Bristol head coach has called on his players to eradicate the basic mistakes that cost them at Kingston Park last night.
Bristol suffered their fourth straight Premiership defeat of the season as they went down 17-3 in a match littered with individual errors at Newcastle.
The defeat left Bristol rooted to the bottom of the table on one point, four behind Worcester, who have a game in hand, and eight adrift of Newcastle.
And Hill said: "It's disappointing, but we didn't play well and Newcastle deserved to win.
"Last week against Sale we thought we had turned the corner, but tonight we fell back into our old ways of shooting ourselves in the foot and making too many errors.
"We are a better side than we showed tonight – but our performance was littered with individual errors.
"We are not playing particularly well at the moment and it's all down to individuals looking after the ball in contact, passing properly, catching properly and making their one-on-one tackles.
"You've got to do those basics well – and at the moment they are not being done as well as they should be.
"I can't fault the effort, though. They are trying as hard as they can."
Hill's side take on Saracens at the Memorial Stadium on Wednesday – and Hill realises his team are in a scrap for every point they can get, even at this early stage of the season.
"We've got to try to instil a bit more confidence in some of the players," said Hill.
"I am concerned, because I think it's going to be ourselves and Newcastle who are down at the bottom, so this one here was an important one – and not to pick up even a bonus point was disappointing.
"We are not used to starting a season this poorly and we know we have got a fair bit to do. But we will pull through, hopefully. We can't afford to dwell on this."
Comment on this story