This was a tale of two city clubs facing contrasting fortunes. Gloucester enter the new year sitting in third place in the Guinness Premiership and with Dean Ryan, their head coach, confident that with several injured players ready to return next month, the outlook is positive and that the play-offs are a realistic target.

Bristol, however, may have secured funding before Christmas to see them through to the end of the season, but thereafter, who knows where they might be? They start 2009 three points adrift at the bottom of the table after a dreadfully disappointing performance against their West Country rivals on Saturday, a match in which they started and ended poorly. In between, they showed endeavour and spirit, but precious little quality.

Richard Hill, the Bristol director of rugby, insists after a 29-10 defeat that relegation can be avoided, pinpointing the home game against Newcastle Falcons on February 13 as the key to survival. “Provided we beat them we should come out on top,” Hill said. “Our chances are still good compared with Newcastle's.

“We had a bad start today, it was just a poor game for us. The pressure began to tell on us in the second half.”

Ryan was toasting an unexpected bonus point after two late tries by Lesley Vainikolo and Mike Tindall, the latter's second of the match. “I am pretty happy with where we are. If we can push on from here, then we have a good chance of being in the mix,” Ryan said.

“We would have lost this game if our energy levels had been anywhere near to where they were last Saturday [when they lost 42-12 to London Irish].”

Tindall must surely be on Martin Johnson's radar for the RBS Six Nations Championship, having been overlooked for England's autumn internationals. The centre showed dexterity and strength to score in the final minute, having earlier cut a fine angle to touch down under the posts - a try that ended Bristol's resistance and hopes of a losing bonus point.

Gloucester had got off the mark with a jinking run to the line by Olly Morgan, courtesy of some awful defence. The Bristol set-piece was off-colour and the rhythm of the game was not helped by the inability of David Rose, the referee, to sort out the scrums, which were a mess and repeatedly had to be reset. Ryan felt that the fault lay with the scrum halves delaying the put-in, causing the frequent collapses.

Bristol could not match Gloucester's physicality and competitiveness at the breakdown and the few decent attacking positions they did create were lost to turnovers or poor handling. Their only try was an interception by David Lemi. The one consolation for the home team was a full house of almost 12,000, but attracting them back after this will be difficult.

Scorers: Bristol: Try: Lemi (79min). Conversion: Jarvis. Penalty goal: Barnes (23). Gloucester: Tries: Tindall 2 (69, 80), Morgan (4), Vainikolo (78). Conversions: Lamb 2, Barkley. Penalty goal: Lamb (25).

Scoring sequence: (Bristol first): 0-7, 3-7, 3-10 (half-time), 3-17, 3-22, 10-22, 10-29.

Bristol: L Arscott; L Robinson, Neil Brew, D Eves (rep: Nathan Brew, 64), D Lemi; E Barnes (rep: AJarvis, 64), S Perry (sin-bin, 38-49); D Crompton, SLinklater (rep: M Regan, 40+1), J Hobson (rep: MIrish, 50), M Sambucetti (rep: D Attwood, 73), RSidoli, N Budgett, A To'oala, D Ward-Smith.

Gloucester: O Morgan; M Watkins, M Tindall, O Barkley, L Vainikolo; R Lamb, R Lawson (rep: DLewis, 50); N Wood (rep: A Dickinson, 77), O Azam, C Nieto, W James (rep: A Eustace, 73), A Brown, AStrokosch, A Satala, L Narraway.

Referee: D Rose. Attendance: 11,845.