Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he is frustrated his side were not able to win at Bristol in the Prem but will not overreact to the defeat.
The Chiefs lost 18-14 despite facing a Bears side that was down to 14 men for 30 minutes.
The defeat was a first of the season for Exeter, who had a potentially match-winning try disallowed late on as they slipped to sixth in the table.
“We were up there talking as coaches and going ‘really, we’ve let this one slip’ and I think we have,” Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.
“I’m not going to run away from that, I think we’ve let it slip. But at the same time I can’t believe people think we were coming into this season as the finished article and we were just going to either win or draw, go the season unbeaten.
“We’ve still got a lot of hard work to become a great side, but all we’ve got to do is keep doing that day by day and week by week.
“I said to the lads ‘we weren’t the best team in the Premiership last week when we beat Newcastle and we’re not the worst team in the Premiership now because we lost by a few points to Bristol’.
“It doesn’t work like that, you have to stay progressive day by day and week by week and that’s how we’ll get to where we want to go to.”
