Edinburgh set up a nerve shredding finale to their Heineken Cup Pool Four tie at Bath and were camped on the home team’s line until the last second of the contest, but the men in Red were unable to secure a draw; eventually losing 16-9.

 It was a frustrating climax to a game that had originally promised so much against a Bath side struggling to recreate past glories.

But a high error count meant that a gutsy performance served up by Edinburgh ultimately counted for nothing on English soil. Nevertheless, even though Edinburgh served up an off-key showing they were in the match until stoppage time when a try-line scramble was denied.

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For every innovative piece of play by Edinburgh an elementary mistake unravelled all of the good work and the collective performance ranged from the sublime to the frustratingly inaccurate.

In all red, Edinburgh were under intense pressure the start and a break from Bath full-back Nick Abendanon paved the way through for hooker Pieter Dixon, in as a replacement for Lee Mears, scored – after deliberation from the TMO.

Just three minutes had lapsed, but already Edinburgh were on the back-foot and trailing by five points.

Then two minutes later, a mistake at the breakdown area enabled Nicky Little to add a simple penalty to make 8-0 inside six minutes – a horrible start for Edinburgh.

The boot of Chris Paterson brought Edinburgh back into the game seven minutes later with a well-taken penalty.

But Edinburgh were guilty of making the wrong decisions inside their own 22 and escaped from a couple of hairy moments with Bath cranking up the pressure.

Scott MacLeod made a superb interception with Bath closing in on the whitewash and Edinburgh breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Paterson struck again on the 21-minute mark to cut Bath’s lead to just two points after prop David Flatman was penalised and Edinburgh started to generate some momentum.

Little scuffed a straightforward penalty before Michael Stephenson scored in the corner following some clever attacking play and offloading from the home team.

Phil Godman was yellow carded on 35 minutes, but rather than buckle, Edinburgh responded magnificently with Nick De Luca almost scoring a memorable interception try.

After Laidlaw had been high-tackled by Bath’s Shontayne Hape, Paterson added another three points to keep the scoreboard ticking over for 14-man Edinburgh.

Little was then handed another chance to extend Bath’s lead but his penalty cannoned off the woodwork and was scrambled away to safety.

But Little made no mistake with eight minutes to go with a penalty to leave Edinburgh chasing a seven-point deficit.

That set up a grandstand finale, but, despite cranking up the pressure and pegging Bath back, Edinburgh could not find a way through.

Bath: Abendanon; Stephenson, Carraro, Hape, Cheeseman; Little, Claassens; Flatman, Dixon, Wilson, Hooper, Short, Beattie, Salvi, Watson.
Replacements: Bell for Wilson (68), Skirving for Beattie (69).
Not Used: Catt, Hobson, Bemand, Davis, Williams, Lilley.

Edinburgh: Paterson; Houston, Cairns, De Luca, Visser; Godman, Laidlaw; Jacobsen, Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, MacLeod, MacDonald, R Grant, Newlands, D Blair.
Replacements: Thompson for Paterson (65), D Blair for Godman (55), Traynor for Jacobsen (58), Kelly for Ford (68), Young for G Cross (79), C Hamilton for S Turnbull (40), Hogg for Newlands (60), Samson for D Blair (77).

Sin bin: Godman (34)

Att: 11,600

Ref: Alain Rolland (Ireland).