Bristol 22 Bath 15: Stanojevic stunner puts Bristol's shadow side into the spotlight

Bristol are clearly stringing people along in allowing all this talk of second-choice sides taking the field in the EDF Energy Cup.

The Premiership leaders stretched their unbeaten run to five games after a tight contest against West Country rivals Bath, having fielded just three players from the 22 which beat Wasps the previous week.

With another local derby looming next weekend, against Gloucester at Kingsholm, Richard Hill should be presented with a few selection headaches. A headache is almost certainly what Bath's acting head coach, Steve Meehan, will have. In addition to the defeat, he lost the services of his Wales scrum-half, Andy Williams, thanks to a shoulder injury.

A packed Memorial Stadium was treated to some sparkling moments on a waterlogged pitch. The best was saved for last, when Marko Stanojevic finished off a tidy build-up in the last minute of normal time.

There had been nothing separating the teamsup to that point. Despite prolonged spells in the Bristol half, Bath could find no way through the home defence. One of those spells lasted the best part of 10 minutes, when Bath opted for line-outs or scrums from every penalty they were awarded.

It was not that which cost them the game. They had had opportunities through-out the match. They certainly had some pace out wide, not least from the debutant left wing Ian Davey, a 19-year-old who was no slouch on or off the ball, showing good positional sense and always looking for work.

But for all the pressure that their pace and possession provided, Bath lacked a cutting edge. Their opening try came from a catch and drive following a penalty line-out, the prop Duncan Bell getting the touchdown. The second came from Shaun Berne's delicate chip, re-gather and race, although he was caught short of the line by David Lemi. Michael Stephenson was up in support and got his hands on the ball just in time.

Bristol's three tries came on the back of some decent organisation. The tighthead prop Jason Hobson rounded off some good work out on the right for the first in the 24th minute. They had to wait until early in the second half for the second, when the Italy centre Walter Pozzebon was the beneficiary of a perfect short pass from the fly-half Danny Gray.

Their scoring flow was rudely interrupted by a Bath fightback, which dragged the scores level for the second time in the match. But after letting the Bath players beat their heads against a wall for a while, the home side lifted the siege, broke clear and headed upfield.

The replacement full-back Luke Arscott took the ball up into the Bath 22 and the replacement hooker Saul Nelson took it on still further before the ball was recycled. The starting scrum-half Brian O'Riordan's intelligent pass sent Stanojevic in for that telling last score.

Bristol: Tries Hobson, Pozzebon, Stanojevic; Conversions Gray 2; Drop goal Gray. Bath: Tries Bell, Stephenson; Conversion Malone; Penalty Malone.

Bristol: B Stortoni (L Arscott, 78); M Stanojevic, W Pozzebon, A Reay, D Lemi; D Gray, B O'Riordan; A Clarke (M Irish, 68), D Blaney (S Nelson, 63), J Hobson (W Thompson, 75), M Sambucetti (D Attwood, 79), N Budgett, A To'oala (R Martin-Redman, 60), C Short (capt), G Lewis.

Bath: M Perry; M Stephenson, T Cheeseman, S Berne (J Maddock, 57), I Davey; C Malone, A Williams (P Travagli, 71); D Barnes (D Flatman, 52-78), R Hawkins (C Brooker, 52), D Bell (Flatman, 78), R Fidler (D Smith, 48), J Faamatuainu, J Scaysbrook, C Goodman (P Short, 52), I Feau'nati (capt).

Referee: S Davey (Northumberland).