Head Coach Richard Hill could not disguise his disappointment as Worcester Warriors conceded two tries in the final two minutes to suffer a 31-26 defeat to Exeter Chiefs.
The boot of Andy Goode looked to have wrapped up the points after first half tries from Craig Gillies and Miles Benjamin.
But an unbelievable finale saw the Chiefs scored through Phil Dollman with less than two minutes left before a try by replacement Sireli Naqelevuki in the final play of the game saw Exeter claim the most dramatic of victories.
“That’s a bad moment of the season,” admitted Hill. “To have done the hard work and to be ahead with just a couple of minutes to go against a very good team that is on form and then lose in that fashion.
“They did very well to keep the ball, but it is a massive blow for us to lose that game. It is not a very pleasant feeling at the moment and it shouldn’t be.
“You have to give Exeter huge credit with the way they never gave up, they played well and some good skills at the end to deservedly score.
“There looked like there was a knock-on at the end, but I’m not complaining. I’m not sure if it was or not. The fact is they continued to play and worked the try very well.”
Hill was also left to true missed chances as Worcester suffered a first defeat on home soil in 2012.
He said: “We didn’t make some good decisions at the start, they put a lot of pressure with the kick chase and some of our decisions at the back were less than impressive.
“We didn’t clear our third particularly well, but we did create one very good chance and should have scored. Good defence from them as they held us up over the line, but we should have scored.
“We had two or three other clear cut chances, a two-on-one with Miles Benjamin and Chris Pennell in the second half when we should have scored. And the forward pass for a disallowed try from Marcel Garvey.
“We had chances and we didn’t put them away – in the end we paid the penalty.
“On the final play of the game, with the restart, I thought we should have gone long,” he added.
“We kicked to contest the ball which gave them a bit of possession on the ten metre line, and then you are in the territory when you have got to be careful about giving points away.
“In hindsight we definitely should have booted that one long and put them in their 22 and asked more questions of them. Those are the decisions that are made by players; we all sit on the touchline and perhaps do things slightly differently.”
Hill also conceded that Warriors could have piled up more points when Exeter were down to 13 men after Luke Arscott and Gonzalo Camacho were yellow carded within the space of four second half minutes.
However, the Sixways felt a red card for Camacho’s dangerous tackle on Alex Grove would have been harsh.
“I was disappointed we didn’t get more points,” he said. “Having said that, I felt we were in control and we were chipping away with three points.
“We really looked like the game was in our hands and we were just going to go on and score more points. I’m not sure what happened in the last ten minutes, with a bit of a wind behind us the game was ours to win.
“It makes it all the more cruel. The players are disappointed, we all are, because we had that game.
“You have to give the opposition credit; a lot of teams would not have come back from that. But they are a very determined Exeter team that never give up. They have done exceptionally well to win that game.
“Gonzalo is a nice man and I know him,” added Hill. “He is not a malicious player. He is a lovely, very polite Argentinean so it would have been harsh to see him get a red card.”