BRISTOL'S acting head coach Mark Tainton has vowed that his club will "fight right to the very end" after they were nudged closer towards Aviva Premiership relegation.

Bristol's survival hopes hang by a thread after west country rivals Gloucester beat them 32-14 at Ashton Gate, and they remain bottom of the Premiership, seven points behind 11th-placed Worcester with just four games left.

Their remaining fixtures include clashes against the league's current top-three teams in Wasps, Exeter and Saracens, which underlines how tough a task they face.

"We created opportunities and field position, but we didn't execute, and Gloucester did," head coach Tainton said.

"We are getting in the right areas of the field, but we are not executing, and when we turned the ball over or made a mistake, we got punished.

"When Gloucester got good field position, they came away with points. They also defended really well. We weren't clinical enough in certain areas of the field.

"We can't hide away from it. We've got four games left, three of them against the top three teams in the Premiership, so it is going to be very difficult to get something from them.

"But speaking to the players, we are going to try and fight right to the very end.

"A point or two points from some of those games, and who knows what is going to happen come the final week of the season."

Wings Charlie Sharples and Jonny May, flanker Lewis Ludlow and fly-half Billy Burns scored tries, while Burns added 12 points with the boot, as Gloucester's bonus point success gave them a first Premiership away win since mid-September.

Burns' opposite number Billy Searle booted three penalties and replacement hooker Max Crumpton claimed a late try, yet Bristol look set for a quickfire Championship return just one season after regaining top-flight status following a seven-year absence.

Gloucester's interim head coach Jonny Bell said: "We soaked up a lot of pressure. We knew Bristol would come hard at us, and we had to defend very well.

"We are not getting ahead of ourselves. We've talked about the next four or five weeks being like a mini-season for us, and we are clearly delighted to get the win.

"A couple of weeks ago (Gloucester lost at home to Harlequins) has come and gone, and there is a lot of water under the bridge since then. It shows a huge amount of character in the side.

"We have got to be honest and make sure we rectify the things we didn't do well, but we asked for a performance that was built around spirit and a tight group of players who were willing to roll their sleeves up, and we are delighted that we came out on the right side of it."