Relegation fight is now a two-horse race, says Bristol coach Hill

Richard Hill believes the Guinness Premiership relegation battle will be fought between his Bristol side and Newcastle after both were beaten on Friday night.

Bristol were crushed 39-10 by five-try Gloucester in the derby at Kingsholm, while Newcastle went down 26-11 at Worcester.

Bristol remain three points behind the Falcons – and head coach Hill expects the scrap for survival to be fought between the two clubs.

"I think we'll win enough games at home to stay up," said Hill, whose side's only try last night was scored by Samoan winger David Lemi.

"We've got a little mini-league going with Newcastle at the moment.

"I'm keeping track of their results and our results – and I think it will be between ourselves and Newcastle at the end. It could even come down to the last few games."

Peter Buxton crossed twice for Gloucester, while Olly Morgan, Alex Brown and Ryan Lamb also went over as they moved up to second in the table.

And Hill admitted his side had been well beaten by a side that will challenge for the title and must now move on quickly. They host London Irish at the Memorial Stadium a week tomorrow.

"Gloucester were very good, although I think we helped them to a certain extent by giving silly penalties away and missing some basic tackles in the first half," said Hill.

"But they punished us – they were very clinical and every time they got within striking distance they scored.

"There aren't too many positives to take out of that – we've just got to draw a line underneath it and move on.

"There's no point getting too despondent about it – we got beaten, we didn't play well and Gloucester were very good."

Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan, who previously performed the same role at Bristol, was delighted with his team's performances in front of the Sky television cameras.

"I'm very pleased – I thought for 50-60 minutes we were very clinical and played with good pace and tempo. I don't think they had an answer to it," he said.

"When you are playing against a side like Bristol, if you don't come through the first half-an-hour with some ascendency, then it can become difficult to shake them off and everything becomes up for grabs.

"But I think we did a good job – we did everything we set out to do."

After seven games Bristol remain bottom of the table, one point behind Wasps, who play Sale Sharks tomorrow, and three adrift of Newcastle and Northampton.