England centre Ollie Lawrence felt Bath should have done more with their second-half dominance in a 20-15 Gallagher Premiership defeat at Sandy Park.
Exeter led 20-10 at the interval and were threatening to cut loose but their West Country rivals stayed in the fight, and when replacement hooker Niall Annett touched down in the 62nd minute they were back in contention.
For the last quarter Bath laid siege on the Chiefs’ 22 but could not break through again.
“There were a few moments in the game that didn’t go our way. We couldn’t really take control but we were proud of the boys’ efforts. It was a game of small margins,” Lawrence said.
“It’s always a tale of two halves here…one with the wind and one without the wind.
“We didn’t quite capitalise in that second half when we probably should have done. That’s disappointing but hopefully we’ll bounce back against Newcastle next week.
“We want to play in the right areas of the field, make our tackles, and eventually moments will come for us. They came here but we just didn’t quite take them.”
Exeter defence coach Omar Mouneimne admitted his side had to show their resolve to cling on for a win that lifts them to sixth in the table.
“Bath’s game-plan came through. Because we made so many mistake and they got so many set-piece penalties, they were driving us up the pitch and got a lot of territory,” Mouneimne said.
“They have big lads and are a good team. We had to survive those attacks in our half for long periods of time.
“They were nervy moments at the end, but we’ve trained for those tap penalty situations and we’ve trained to handle them.
“But you never know with those things and the guys had the heart and the courage to go for it.
“Early in the second half it looked like we were going to take the game by the scruff of the neck. We had some nice opportunities and good line-breaks but just couldn’t convert.
“Had we scored in those key moments we would have put them away, but Bath always felt they were in it.”
