Ashton (left) was unimpressed by the number of penalties his side conceded

The west Country side's hopes of a second Heineken Cup triumph were ended by an 18-9 defeat in San Sebastian.

"I am bitterly disappointed with the outcome. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure in the first half.

"You can't give soft points away without making it very difficult to win," he said.

"In the second half we created opportunities to score tries but we didn't put the chances away, so I am very disappointed.

"I didn't think this was a game too far by any stretch of the imagination, and disappointed is a polite word to sum up the players' feeling that they didn't do better."

Captain Steve Borthwick was also less than impressed by Bath's display.

"We made some errors in our discipline, and we gave away some silly penalties," he said.

Bath are now unlikely to qualify for the Heineken Cup next term, and Borthwick added: "As a player, you are desperate to play at the highest level, so it is desperately disappointing not to qualify.