 Flutey's penalties came in the 60th and 78th minutes |
Bristol 7 (7)
Try: Lemi
Con: Strange
London Irish 12 (6)
Pens: Everitt 2, Flutey 2
London Irish made it four Premiership wins in a row despite playing the final 25 minutes with 14 men.
Two penalties from Barry Everitt and a brace from Riki Flutey sent Bristol to their third straight league defeat and their first at home this season.
Bristol scored the only try when David Lemi picked up a loose ball from Everitt and raced over from 60m out.
Full-back Delon Armitage was sent off on 55 minutes after an off-the-ball incident with Bristol's Lee Robinson.
London Irish coach Brian Smith:
"I didn't see the incident that resulted in the red card but Delon Armitage is a good boy and I know that he wouldn't be doing anything wrong. "It was a good win for us having gone in at the break 7-6 after enjoying a bruising first half.
"It was very ugly but gutsy and I'm proud of the performance. Bristol play a rush defence and you can come here at any time and you are going to see a game like this.
"They get up and get in your face and I thought Bristol dominated the collisions.
"We were a whisker away from getting rolled in this game so we need to be better than we were here and we're looking for a big improvement against Wasps."
Bristol coach Richard Hill:
"We had our chances in the second half but just didn't quite do enough to convince Mr Spreadbury that we had crossed the line. "We could have won the game, it was a very close thing but it is a very thin dividing line as it is in most of these games and we just didn't finish off where we should have done.
"Their line-out was probably very efficient, a bit better than ours, and they were able to guarantee possession from their line-outs.
"We played better in this game that we have in our last three - although we did beat Newcastle in an ugly game - but we are picking up some serious injuries."
Bristol: Taumalolo, Robinson, Brew, Higgitt, Lemi, Strange, O'Riordan; Clarke, Linklater, Crompton, Winters, Llewellyn, Budgett, El Abd, Blowers.
Replacements: Regan, Hilton, Hohmeck, Pennycock, Nicholls, Gray, Arscott
London Irish: D Armitage, Ojo, Mapusaua, Flutey, Tagicakibau, Everitt, Hodgson; Hatley, Russell, Rautenbach, Kennedy, Casey (c), Roche, S Armitage, Murphy.
Replacements (from): Lea'aetoa, Paice, Collins, Hudson, Luguizamon, Magne, Willis, Mordt.
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