DIRECTOR of rugby David Humphreys admitted Gloucester’s ill-discipline was to blame for not giving a raucous Kingsholm crowd more to shout about against Exeter Chiefs on Friday night, writes Jack Skelton.

The Cherry & Whites were initially ruthless in attack, exploiting Ian Whitten's early yellow card with Jonny May collecting his own deft chip to touch down and Dan Murphy powering over from close-range.

However a period of ill-discipline allowed the Chiefs to go from 12-3 behind to 22-12 ahead thanks to Ben White's well worked try and the kicking talents of Gareth Steenson and Henry Slade as Matt Kvesic was shown a yellow card.

The visitors then had to survive a second-half onslaught at Kingsholm, led by Silone Kalafamoni's try and James Hook's boot.

But the Chiefs did hang on for a 25-22 win, leaving Humphreys to lament a penalty count that undermined his side's ability to draw on their vocal home support.

"We talked before the game about needing an 80-minute performance to beat a team like Exeter," he said.

"I thought for large parts of the game we were very good, but in the first half our set-pieces didn't function. The penalty count was six to one against and we couldn't create any pressure.

"With the ball we were quite good in stages, we just gave them too much of a lead. To go from 12-3 to 12-22 at half-time we need to look and see what went on in that middle period.

"We talked before the game about Kingsholm and a magnificent atmosphere under the Friday night lights.

"The crowd got behind the team and we responded in the second half but we just gave ourselves too much to do."

The win put Exeter top of the table briefly before ending the weekend fourth, and director of rugby Rob Baxter believes their early-season form will not have gone unnoticed by their rivals around the country.

"It is the odd thing that is changing the momentum of games for us, and if we could just stop those momentum shifts in our game we could be a match for anybody," Baxter said.

"Sometimes when the squeeze comes on we have guys that get a little bit squeaky, but that's just because they want to win.

"We know where we are as a side. We can be a very good side that put teams under a lot of pressure.

"Then just when we need to finish someone off we go: 'let's have another game of rugby and start all over again'.

"Having said that, to go points down as early as we did, a yellow card, to methodically work our way back was a big bonus for me.

"Our boys are tough, that's fundamental to everything. We've shown that in the three games so far. The boys will have a nice couple of days now to watch everyone else scrap it out and see where we are at the end of the weekend."

For tickets to any Aviva Premiership Rugby match go to www.premiershiprugby.com/tickets/